BRANDISHING A cartoon which showed the scales of justice looking distinctly lopsided, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday presented a comprehensive and controversial judicial reform package intended, he claims, to put those scales back on an even keel.
Presenting the package, the prime minister controversially suggested that had these reforms been introduced 20 years ago, they would have prevented “the invasion of the judiciary into politics”, an invasion which has brought down governments (in 1994) and which “in 1993 wiped out an entire ruling class”.
This was a reference to the celebrated Tangentopoli or Bribesville corruption inquiry of the early 1990s. Moving to the present day, the prime minister also suggested that these reforms would have blocked “the ongoing attempt to bring down the current government by judicial means”.
Much of the 16 point reform package came as no great surprise, given that Mr Berlusconi has for months, if not years, indicated many of the key changes he would like to see enacted. Making judges liable to pay damages in case of judicial errors, the restriction of the investigative powers of prosecutors and career separation between public prosecutors and judges are just some of the more controversial elements in the package.
Given that these proposals involve constitutional reform, they must be approved by a two-thirds parliamentary majority before they become law. If the Bill fails to achieve that majority then it may be presented as a constitutional referendum.
Although the prime minister is due to stand trial in four different cases in the coming weeks, including the “Rubygate” sex scandal, Mr Berlusconi argued that this was “an organic reform . . . which will have no impact on ongoing trials”.
On the contrary, said the prime minister. He wanted to defend himself in these four trials: “It will give me great satisfaction to be present in court . . . and above all to explain to Italians the exact nature of things.”
However, despite reassurances, the opposition argued that the reform package represented merely another chapter in Mr Berlusconi’s 20-year-long battle with the judiciary: “This is not a reform, rather just an attempt to undermine the autonomy of public prosecutors and put them under total political control,” said Democratic Party whip Dario Franceschini.
Luca Palamara, president of the Italian magistrates’ association, called the proposals “an attempt to undermine the autonomy and independence of the judiciary”.