The storm breaks out immediately afterwards the meeting, which took place on Monday, between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the vice-president of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, Fabio Pinelli. “Unpublished” and “inappropriate”, a “serious interference”. This is how the opposition defines the conversation which, instead, a note from Palazzo Chigi framed “as part of a fruitful and virtuous collaboration, respecting the autonomy of the different institutions“.
The timing also fueled the conflict: the meeting had been scheduled for about three weeks, they underlined from Palazzo Chigi, but in recent weeks tension had risen regarding the appointments affecting the self-governing body of the judiciary, chaired by the head of state. And in many places theappointment was read as a “political” meetingrather than institutional.
Pinelli, in these hours, he declared himself available to talk about the meeting with the Premier and, in an email to the councillors, the vice-president of the CSM writes: “There was an institutional and scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Meloni, we had also informed the Presidency of the Republic. I am available for a meeting with the councilors to talk about it”.
During the written interlocution, the councilors proposed to the vice president to talk about it during the break or at the end of today’s CSM plenum.
Among the criticisms circulating against Pinelli, there is that of having acted outside the presidential mandates, entering a politicized dimension, precisely while the CSM took a position in support of the magistrates in the sights of the center-right for its rulings on the rejection of migrants.
Furthermore, according to circles close to Colle, President Mattarella would have been notified of the appointment between Meloni and Pinelli only close to the meetingwithout being informed of contents and methods.
Meloni “chose to take part in an inappropriate meeting – urged the PD justice manager Debora Serracchiani – pursuing a line of continuous conflict with the judiciary, with theclear intent to compromise its independence“. On the same line, the dem Andrea Orlando, former Minister of Justice: “I may be wrong but from memory I don’t remember the Prime Minister calling the vice-president of the CSM. The summons is serious. It’s sad that Pinelli accepted it. The Keeper of the Seals’ silence is not surprising. Rubbish liberals”. According to Filiberto Zaratti (Avs) the prime minister risks causing “a serious crisis for the entire institutional system”.
To the accusations the majority replies, minimizing the issue: “There is nothing scandalous if the vice president of the CSM meets government representatives in broad daylight, from the prime minister to the minister of justice or the minister of economy” declares Forza Italia MP Enrico Costa.
“Having not seen each other at six in the morning in a convent, but in the institutional headquarters of the government It doesn’t seem like a carbonaro meeting to me, nor a lack of institutional respect – observes the Italian Giorgio Mulèvice president of the Chamber -. It falls within the loyal collaboration between State powers”. And of “normal conversation”, speaks Paolo Trancassini (FdI).
However, the fact that the climate is very tense can also be seen from the images a few lines sent by the 14 councilors (all members except those belonging to independent judiciaries) to Pinelli: “We learned from the press about the visit in its institutional capacity”, is the dig with which the note opens. “THE’ The meeting took place at a particularly delicate moment in the relations between politics and the judiciary – the robes comment -. We therefore ask you to inform us, in tomorrow’s Plenum (today ed.) or in the best place deemed appropriate, of the contents of this meeting, so that this Council can be aware of such an institutionally important step”.
The councilors belonging to the Area, Md, Unicost groups plus the independents Roberto Fontana and Andrea Mirenda and the secular Roberto Romboli (Pd) signed the text.
“The statement issued by the Presidency of the Council makes it known that Pinelli visited President Meloni in an official capacity. If this is the case, I believe that the Council, which is a collegial body, should have known about it“ he said Marcello Basilico, professional member of the CSM, commenting on the meeting in an interview with The Press. “In fact there is no memory of a precedent in this sense“, Basilico underlines, recalling how the visit took place during the public assembly of the ANM in Bologna: “Perhaps, even in the event that the visit was planned, it would have been appropriate to postpone it to a day in which the chronological coincidence would have lent itself less to dangerous or biased readings“.
Different reading that of Felice Giuffrélay member of the CSM elected on the recommendation of FdI: “It was an institutional meeting. An example of that dialogue, of that loyal collaboration that must always characterize the relationship between institutions of the Republic. I don’t think it’s irregular. I would add that if, as appears from press reports, the Quirinale was informedthen it is really not clear with what motivation the circumstance of the meeting between President Meloni and Vice President Pinelli is defined.“, commented Giuffrè who then added. “Probably the meeting between Meloni and Pinelli also had the meaning of underlining that there is no desire for conflict on the part of the Government“, says Giuffrè, who does not speak of conflict but of “clutches provoked by a part of the judiciary that believes it must raise its voice against the justice reform that the majority has initiated”.
Conflict or friction, the tension on Justice inside and outside the Marshes’ Palace therefore it still remains very high. And it is not obvious that the plenum of the Council scheduled today manages to dilute it.
