“The resignation of President Occhiuto produce immediate effects. He must leave the guidance of the Calabria Region and allow the vice -president of the vice president.” This is what the lawyer Francesco Pitaro, former regional councilor, who intervenes with a very hard note on the institutional position of Roberto Occhiuto after his resignation as president of the Calabria Region, says.
Pitaro invokes compliance with the current legislation, clarifying that the president’s resignation constitute a unilateral receptive act, or an act that, once received by the competent body, has immediate effectiveness. “There is no interpretative margin – he says -: Occhiuto, after resignation, is no longer president”.
The legal node: the question of art. 37 of the statute
According to the lawyer, art. 37, paragraph 7, of the Statute of the Calabria Region, which provides that “the President of the Council and the Council remain in office until the proclamation of the new president”. This rule, observes Pitaro, refers to the ordinary natural expiry hypothesis of the mandate, and cannot be applied to extraordinary situations such as the current one, namely the voluntary and formalized resignation of the head of the regional executive.
The previous Scopelliti and the Tar sentence
In support of his thesis, Pitaro recalls a previous relevant jurisprudential: sentence no. 2255/2014 of the Tar of Catanzaro, pronounced on an appeal filed by Pitaro himself together with the lawyer Gianluigi Pellegrino. The story concerned the resignation of the then president Giuseppe Scopelliti and the delayed take -over of the vice -president Antonella Stasi, who should have induced the elections on the scheduled times.
The sentence – Pitaro recalls – established that, in cases of permanent impediment or resignation of the president, the task of convening the electoral rallies is due to the vice -president, as they have taken from law. The regional reference rule is article 1-bis of regional law no. 1/2005, introduced with law 8/2014.
Pitaro warns: “Continuing would be abuse and conducted criminally relevant”
“In light of all this – Pitaro – Occhiuto must immediately leave the charge, to allow the correct application of the legislation and the regular takeover of the vice -president.” The lawyer does not use minor terms in defining abusive and illegitimate any possible stay in office of the resigning president: “It would be a conduct without legal title and, therefore, also potentially criminally persisted, with the invalidation of all the acts that may be adopted”.
Appeal to compliance with institutional legality
Pitaro’s message is direct and unequivocal: “The law must be applied, without forcing or ambiguity. It is a matter of respect for institutions and protection of constitutional and statutory legality. Resignation is a legally accomplished fact and cannot be interpreted as suspended or reversible.”
Pending official clarifications by the Region, the intervention of Francesco Pitaro feeds the political and legal debate on a story that could open an unprecedented institutional clash in Calabria.