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  • Chaos Prosecutors, Palamara lawyers: "The 'trojan' interceptions with Ferri and Lotti are useless"
  • Chaos Prosecutors: Cosimo Ferri leaves the Anm, avoided trial before the arbitrators

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08 August 2020Increase in the number of councilors, for double-round elections and draw if the required number of candidates for each college is not reached and with respect for gender equality; no to lay people from government posts, in the Regions and in the autonomous provinces, reorganization of prosecutors with less hierarchy, rigid rules for appointments to stem the excessive power of the currents. These are the main points of the reform of the High Council of the Judiciary. The text of forty articles by Bonafede launched by the Council of Ministers is articulated to radically change the world of the judiciary that has come under accusation with the Palamara case and the chaos of the Prosecutors.

The enabling law already contains among the first lines the key point of the reform: the need to reformulate, according to the principles of transparency and enhancement of merit, the criteria for assigning managerial and semi-executive positions. With the point that the "magistrate holding top positions, even when he does not ask for confirmation, cannot participate in competitions for the conferral of a further executive or semi-executive office for five years".

The number of councilors
increases The number of councilors increases, from 24 to 30: from 16 to 20 the lay people, who are currently 8, will be 10. As regards the electoral system, the election of toga councilors will take place in 19 colleges with two rounds of voting: in the first round, 4 preferences can be expressed, with alternation of gender. Each college must select 10 candidates, always respecting gender equality. If this does not happen, if the ten candidates are not reached and if there is no alternation, the draw takes place: an electoral office proceeds in public session to the extraction of the missing candidates. Whoever has 65% of the votes is elected in the first round, or the four candidates who have obtained the highest number of preferences go to the ballot. In the event of a tie, the candidate of the gender who is least represented in the college passes. Among the laity, those coming from government posts in the two previous years in the Regions and autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano cannot be elected. Significant news also on the activities of the CSM. To stem the power of currents, the reform introduces a ban on forming groups, providing that each director exercises his or her role independently and impartially.Another fundamental point, the activity of appointing the top judicial offices: strict compliance with the chronology of the vacancy of places, obligation to hear candidates if at least three members of the commission request it and, to reduce discretion in choices, the criterion of seniority returns, with equal merit and aptitudes, and in the evaluation, in addition to the opinions of the judicial councils , also those of the lawyers enter. New rules also to prevent CSM activities from becoming a driving force for career advancement: anyone who has been a director cannot hold executive positions for the following four years, and cannot hold out-of-office positions for two years. The members of the commissions will be drawn by lot, and whoever is a member of one of the commissions dealing with appointments, transfers due to functional and environmental incompatibility and evaluations of professionalism cannot be part of the disciplinary section.

The reform introduces new rules for the organization of proxies, reducing the power of the bosses and their discretion in favor of greater control by the CSM which will establish the criteria to ensure homogeneity in the management of the offices, indicating the general principles for the projects Stop at the revolving doors between robes and politics: a magistrate who has held a position in the Italian or European parliament, or in a Region for at least six months, or who has been in government positions or in municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants will not wear plus the toga and may be relocated as an official to the Ministry of Justice or other ministries. Magistrates who have been on leave for at least two months can apply, but not in the constituency in which they have practiced in the last two years. If they are not elected, they will not be able to work in that constituency, and for three years they will not be able to have the functions of investigating judge, prosecutor or have managerial positions. The reform also provides for a barrier to changes in the function of robes, between the public prosecutor and the judge: the change can take place at most twice and no longer four. Easier access to the judiciary: with the new rules it is no longer necessary to attend a school and those who have graduated in law after a course of at least four years can directly participate in the competition.

Bonafede: "Let's rebuild the credibility of justice"
"We are rebuilding the credibility of justice with an ambitious reform" of the CSM, necessary regardless of the "recent scandals", said the Minister of Justice, Alfonso Bonafede, in the press conference at the end of the Council of Ministers. to "unhinge the current account". The members of the disciplinary section will be chosen by drawing lots and will not be able to be part of other commissions and for the appointments for the judicial offices we want to avoid "any partition logic", with the "stop of the package appointments: a chronological order must be followed, in order to avoid that several appointments can arrive on the Council table at the same time, which can go along with partition logic that we want to overcome ", Bonafede underlined. With the reform of the CSM "a boundary is accentuated and placed once and for all between politics and the judiciary," said the Minister of Justice, explaining that it will not be possible to elect from among the lay members "people who hold at that time or have held in the last two years of government roles at national or regional level. Furthermore, anyone who has been a member of the High Council of the Judiciary ", at the end of the mandate" in the following four years cannot submit applications for executive and semi-executive positions ", to avoid" that the role as a member of the Higher Council of the Judiciary can in some way represent an advantage ".

"Finally we write in black and white", added the Keeper, that "the magistrate who enters politics, and is absolutely free to do so, once elected he has lost the requirement of impartiality, so he will no longer be able to return to the judiciary for life . At the time of candidacy he cannot stand as a candidate in the territory in which he is practicing at that time or has exercised in the last two years ". In the event of non-election "it is established that the magistrate cannot exercise his functions in the following three years, neither in the territory in which he applied for, nor in the one in which he was exercising his functions at the time of the candidacy. In other territories he cannot exercise the functions. functions of public prosecutor or judge of preliminary investigations ". Finally, the magistrates with positions within the ministries and the presidency of the Council" in the two years following the conclusion of the assignment will not be able to apply for top positions ".