A cartoon that appeared on the Facebook profile of the Criminal Chamber of Cosenza, which symbolically depicts a magistrate hit by an ax and divided between prosecutor and judge, provoked a harsh reaction from the Calabria Democratic Party, which defines it as “serious and disturbing”.
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In a note, the party led by Senator Nicola Irto firmly condemns the image, believing that it evokes institutional violence incompatible with democratic confrontation.
“The border of satire has been crossed”
«Depicting magistrates symbolically hit with an ax – states the Calabria Democratic Party – evokes an institutional violence that cannot find space in the public debate of a democratic country. The discussion on justice reforms must take place on the level of ideas, norms and constitutional guarantees.”
According to the Calabrian dems, the use of images that recall the symbolic elimination of part of the judiciary takes the debate beyond the limits of satire and the referendum campaign itself. “It is a violent, wrong and profoundly irresponsible representation,” the note continues.
The request for immediate withdrawal
The Calabria Democratic Party places the episode in a broader climate of strong tension on the issue of justice. “For weeks the debate has been pushed onto a terrain of head-on conflict and delegitimisation of the institutions, also through the very harsh words of President Giorgia Meloni, who has attacked the judiciary without restraint, speaking of resistance and obstacles to reforms”, say the Democrats.
For the party, the cartoon thus ends up fueling tensions further and touching on a delicate point such as respect between the powers of the State. Hence the request for immediate withdrawal of the image. «The Democratic Party of Calabria condemns this image in the strongest terms and requests that it be withdrawn immediately. Let’s go back to institutional responsibility. It is unacceptable that the balance between the powers of the State is altered and that the stability of our democracy is compromised”, concludes the note.
The ‘Right to Say No’ committee: that cartoon is violence
«The Criminal Chamber of Cosenza is using a cartoon, on social media and in public events, for its yes referendum campaign. This cartoon, as it was designed, represents the paradigm of the Nordio law through an ax that cuts the body of a magistrate in two. Not only that: Roberto Le Pera, the president of the Criminal Chamber of Cosenza, even claimed responsibility for the cartoon in a press release, speaking of ‘satire’ and ‘freedom of expression’. We don’t think that depicting a magistrate being torn to pieces is satire, in Calabria as in the rest of Italy. And we don’t think that saying that we need to get rid of the Judiciary is simply ‘freedom of expression’, in Sicily as in the rest of Italy.” Thus the executive president of the Giusto Dire No Committee, Antonio Diella, regarding the cartoon in which a magistrate is cut in two with an axe. «We think that it is the use of violent language – he adds – which pollutes the referendum debate in the present and which runs the risk of polluting the relationship between the institutions of this country for a long time, regardless of the outcome of the vote. We hope that we don’t have to wait a week before receiving a distancing from the yes supporters and, above all, that this distancing arrives. At least in this case”, concludes Diella.