Italy goes to the polls this Sunday (12) for five referendums that could change aspects of the country's judicial system, including the law that allowed the revocation of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's mandate as senator in 2013.
The popular consultations were called after petitions organized by the ultra-right party Liga, of Matteo Salvini, and by the libertarian-oriented Radicals nanica legend.
The five referendums are revocation, that is, they propose the partial or total suppression of laws or judicial norms in force in Italy, and their results will only be valid if participation exceeds 50% of the electorate.
This is the main challenge for prosecutors, since votes of this type tend to have little engagement from the population, so much so that Salvini, one of the main campaigners for the referendums, appealed this week to President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
“Maybe I'm distracted, but I don't remember if the main state representatives reminded Italians about the fact that they can vote in referendums on justice. I hope that the president and the prime minister will limit themselves to at least reminding Italians that voting in referendums is a right”, demanded the ultra-right senator.
what is at stake?
The main cause in dispute is the repeal of the law that provides for the revocation and automatic ineligibility of occupants of elected and government positions convicted of intentional crimes in the final stage.
It was this rule, known as the Severino Law, that allowed Berlusconi's senatorial mandate to be revoked in 2013, following a conviction for tax fraud, and his ineligibility until 2018.
The law also establishes that municipal managers be suspended from office after a first-degree conviction, a preventive punishment that has affected dozens of mayors in recent years, many of whom would be exonerated in higher courts.
An eventual “yes” victory, however, would cancel the entire text, and not just the part related to mayors. In this case, it would be up to the judiciary to determine the ineligibility of definitively convicted politicians.
The other referenda will decide whether the Court can order the preventive detention of suspects based on the risk of repeating the same crime for which they are being investigated; whether the magistrate can switch from the role of judge to prosecutor and vice versa; whether lawyers and law professors should have the right to vote on the opinions of judicial councils on the work of the judiciary; and about the rule that requires magistrates to obtain at least 25 signatures from colleagues to apply to the Superior Council of the Judiciary, a self-governing body of the Judiciary. (Ansa).
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