The Prime Minister convenes the Council of Ministers for 6 p.m. and prepares the shock with the judges. With the prospect of returning to the polls. But experts say judges can overcome the new law. And decide differently from what the government wants
A decree with the list of safe countries defined by law. Securing the migrant center in Albania risks failing. And this can bring the level of conflict up to the Constitutional Court. The Council of Ministers will approve it today, October 21, even though there is a risk of budgetary damage. And this while the Prime Minister opens her first official front with the magistrates. But for Giorgia Meloni there is a legal problem to resolve. Which could also provoke the intervention of the Quirinale. It is for this reason that the meeting of the Council of Ministers is scheduled for 6 p.m. In view of Palazzo Chigi: the conflict with migrant justice is an area for tearing oneself apart, breaking down and obtaining a consensus. Until the idea of returning to elections. But experts warn: the problem is that judges can circumvent this decree anyway. And decide differently what the government wants.
The decree on the list of safe countries
The list of safe countries will be contained in the text of the legislative decree. While the initial idea was to leave its definition and possible updating to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. La Farnesina will instead host a committee which will have to update the parameters. Redefine the list also in the future. But even then, the final green light will have to come from Palazzo Chigi. Because you will need a top tier standard to touch the list. The choice also serves another purpose. That is to say, preventing the person concerned from moving freely in Italy between the first decision of the territorial commissions on the right to international protection and the appeal. The Cutro decree provides for detention in centers for accelerated border procedures. But the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU risks undermining the mechanism. And this made the tactic chosen by the Interior Ministry impossible.
The backstory
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi had in fact thought of circumventing the possible decision of the immigration section of the Rome court by asserting that Gjader's CPR was on Italian territory to bring the 12 there anyway. Shengjin's “guests”. A path made impossible by the last lines of Judge Silvia Albano's sentence. Which clarified the impossibility of this solution. So here is the solution to this problem. Meloni, who yesterday relaunched the magistrates' discussions on Albania, believes that the prospect of a confrontation with the judges can bring him a consensus. That's why she's ready to break up. With the prospect of having an argument to provide as a pretext to bring up elections if the overall situation requires it. “If we held a referendum, Italians would support this system (The CPR in Albania, ed) by a large majority,” he said.
The second degree for appeals
The other chapter of the decree will address the question of courts which do not validate the detention of shipwrecked persons. Introduce a second level of appeal, whereas now you can only appeal to the Supreme Court. Mattarella's uncertainty remains regarding the executive order. The president's signing power is exercised when a law is manifestly unconstitutional. Yesterday, the President of the Republic invited politicians to find mediation and a synthesis, avoiding any “tyranny of the majority”. And the sentence seems to have been constructed to respond to those who, immediately after the judgments of the court of Rome, spoke of judges revolting against the vote of the Italians. The question of voting for constitutional judges is also on the table. For which Parliament is reconvened for a joint vote on October 29.
How will the list of safe countries end?
Meanwhile, Professor Vittorio Manes of the University of Bologna, director of the journal Diritto di Difesa of the Union of Criminal Chambers, explains today to Corriere della Sera what will happen after the decree with the list of safe countries from the Meloni government. “The Court of Justice of the EU has clearly stated that for a country to be considered safe, it must be safe in all its parts, leaving the assessment of each case to the judge. On this basis, the Italian judges decided not to validate the detention for the purposes of repatriation to Albania, considering that Bangladesh and Egypt were dangerous. It is also difficult to deny it if we only consider the Regeni case in Egypt, or the fact that ethnic and religious minorities are persecuted in Bangladesh, or that in Turkey homosexual relations are punishable by prison.”
Sentences and the Consulta
Manes explains that the judgments of the Court of Justice “are binding, also because of the consolidated jurisprudence of the Council. Circumvention would therefore constitute a breach of the supranational obligations which bind, on the basis of the Constitution, both the judge and, upstream, the legislator.” The path to the list of safe countries to be periodically updated, according to the jurist, would be viable “especially if the domestic legislation is based on the most accredited supranational sources, referring to these also for updating the list. In any case, the judge – to whom the Court of Justice has. given the final word – could still consider this list to be incorrect, or not being updated promptly, and decide differently, if he has documented reasons for doing so.”
How will it end
But this would be, adds the jurist, “a decision that can always be challenged on the merits, which attributes considerable responsibility to each magistrate”. This is why the government wants to try this route. If the judges obstruct, is the underlying reasoning, they can at most raise the question of legitimacy before the Constitutional Court. In any case, it will take some time for the Council to provide the requested response. In this way, the CPR of Albania will actually be able to leave. And then stopping them will become a legal issue. On which to graft other political matches.
