ANM Congress in Palermo: Government opposes independent judges, authoritarian turn similar to P2 project

Last Updated: May 12, 2024

Conte al congresso Anm di Palermo: «Il governo non vuole magistrati indipendenti, la svolta autoritaria ha assonanze con il progetto P2»

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“This congress is at a historic crossroads for our country. The government, which is supported by parties with different visions, has found a balance point: the pactum sceleris. A power compromise to ensure the government’s permanence. Each party has identified a pillar of the Constitution to rewrite, resulting in distorting the very foundations of our constitutional architecture. It is a power compromise that we must denounce: it is irresponsible adventurism,” said M5s President Giuseppe Conte at the national congress of the Anm in Palermo, citing the reform of the Premierato, that of Autonomy, and the judicial reform.

“The overall framework of these reforms – he added – will place us in an area of authoritarian post-democracies. A system lacking balance, with weights and counterweights reduced to the bare minimum. And this also applies to the judiciary.”

“The judicial reform – the former prime minister’s judgment – is a fundamental pillar of the government’s reform plan. It is a process – he added – of centralization and redistribution of powers in a vertical sense. This design is unlikely to be completed with an independent judiciary. Hence the prospect of career separation and reform of the CSM, revision of the obligatoriness of criminal law. They are all corollaries of the same reform design. It is evident that the authoritarian turning point presents similarities with the democratic rebirth project of the P2.”

“On the separation of careers,” the Five Star Movement leader said, “our position is very clear. We do not believe that the Italian model needs to be revised. It is a model that is proving to be virtuous. Career progression is insignificant.” For Conte, the direction the government is taking is that of the “requesting magistrate subjected to political power.”

“There is a political impact,” he explained, “due to the decisions of the magistrates. But it must be addressed seriously. At this moment in the face of the perverse entanglements between politics and business, there is a disgraceful reaction, a corporative reaction, that seeks to undermine the action of the magistrates. The usual ministers denounce “clockwork justice.”

The M5S leader spoke of “ridiculous accusations” against the judiciary, indirectly citing the recent words of government ministers. “Nordio manages to censor an ongoing investigation,” he added. “This majority,” he continued, “is offering a lousy show, and all politics. There is no willingness to interrogate what measures can be taken to counter this permeability to the corruption networks. The message from political power is ‘let us continue our action, let us work.'” The Five Star Movement President then said that “attacks on the judiciary must be rejected.”