There is no rush, but the parties have decided to run. Because what is at stake goes beyond justice reform. In the Chamber, the centre-right and centre-left have started two separate collections of signatures to ask for a referendum to be called in which Italians will be asked to approve or reject the provision which also contains the separation of careers between prosecutors and judges. Both sides are confident of quickly reaching the goal: the accession of 80 deputies. A similar process has been started in the Senate, where the quota is 40. With the referendum, the majority aims first of all at “popular” approval of one of the government’s symbolic reforms. The opposition aims to reject rules that “overturn the Constitution” and is confident in the possibility of dealing a hard blow to the centre-right.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, however, has no intention of linking the fate of the executive to the outcome of the consultation. “The government will continue until the end of the legislature – reiterated the FI group leader in the Senate, Maurizio Gasparri – The referendum on the separation of careers should not be politicised”. However, Forza Italia remains the party pushing the hardest: it considers the reform as a political legacy of the knight. “The Berlusconi family is committed” to the referendum campaign, assured the Italian secretary, Antonio Tajani, even if “I don’t know if they will want” to expose themselves “directly”. On the centre-left, the eternal question of the size of the wide field arises again. «The work we will do together on the referendum – said the Democratic Party senator, Alessandro Alfieri – will be another test. We know that not all oppositions think alike.”
In Parliament the signatures are collected by Pd, M5s and Avs. Italia viva, which abstained on the reform, did not join. And it has not yet decided how it will vote in the referendum: “We are evaluating and discussing”, said the group leader in the Chamber, Maria Elena Boschi. The opinion on the rules is however negative: “A decoy”, said the president of Iv Matteo Renzi, according to whom in the event of defeat the prime minister should resign: “It is clear that the government is asking for trust from the Italians”. “Yes” convinced, however, by Action: “It is a fair reform. It frees the CSM from the system Palamara of the currents, who control everything”, reiterated the secretary Carlo Calenda.
The centre-right and centre-left hope to close the collection of signatures in a few hours. By mid-day the majority had already put together about forty, while the opposition had about ten. In the next few days the two lists will be filed with the Court of Cassation, which will evaluate their validity. In case of authorization (for both or even only one) it is up to the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to give the green light to the consultation. The question is practically obvious: yes or no to the reform.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio is confident that he will be able to see Italians at the polls between March and April. Among the hypotheses linked to the timing of the request for a referendum by the majority, there is also that of a link with the expiry of the mandates of important city prosecutors. Successions could thus take place under the CSM in the new composition envisaged by the reform: the implementing decrees are already ready. The referendum campaign then begins, which will find space at Atreju, the Fdi event scheduled for December. Even if the official invitation is missing (the program is under construction and kept very secret at the moment) the guests should include the president of the ANM, Cesare Parodi, who in September had nominated himself precisely to explain the reasons for the “no” to the reform.