Magistrates staged protests against
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio's reform of the judiciary on
Saturday at ceremonies in several Italian cities to mark the
opening of the judicial year of the country's appeal courts.
In Naples prosecutors and judges lifted copies of the
Constitution to the sky while the national anthem was played and
walked out of the hall in the city's Castel Capuano when Nordio
took the floor to speak.
A group of magistrates also left a courtroom in the Rome when
Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano spoke at a ceremony there
and a similar protest took place in Milan.
The Constitutional reform, which has received a first green
light from the Lower House, separates the career paths of judges
and prosecutors so they can no longer switch between the two
roles.
It also changes the make-up of the judiciary's self-governing
body, the CSM, overhauling the way its justices are elected by
using a draw process, and creates a High Court to discipline
judges and State attorneys.
The judiciary's union, the National Association of Magistrates
(ANM), has said the reform would radically change the
Constitution by altering the relationship between the State's
powers, laying the ground for a possible political influence
over judicial power.
It has called a strike against it on February 27.
Nordio, a former prosecutor, defended the reform during his
speech in Naples and dismissed talk of prosecutors' independence
being limited.
'Dissent is the salt of democracy and I thank the magistrates
for expressing their dissent in a composed manner," the minister
said.
"But to think that a former magistrate like me, who has served
the State for over 30 years, could have the aim of humiliating
the judiciary is unfair.
"The reform for the separation of careers does not call into
question the independence of the public prosecutor.
"It is written in very clearly in the constitutional reform.
"Why read something in the reform that is not in the reform?
"For 40 years I was a prosecutor precisely because I wanted to
be free and independent.
"Nobody would want a public prosecutor subject to executive
power. Not me. It is written in the Constitution and it will
never happen".
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