Italy’s far-right government is embroiled in a power struggle with magistrates amid controversial investigations involving leading figures within the ruling coalition.
In a memo citing sources from the office of the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a “segment of the judiciary” came under attack “for choosing to play an active opposition role” in allegedly attempting to bring down her administration ahead of next year’s European parliamentary elections.
Tensions have been simmering between the two powers since allegations emerged regarding the business activities of the tourism minister, Daniela Santanchè, a close Meloni aide, leading to calls for her resignation.
Santanchè denied she was being investigated during an address to parliament last week. However, judicial sources confirmed soon after the speech that she had been under investigation since October for bankruptcy and false accounting claims involving her publishing group, Visibilia.
“I never appropriated anything that does not belong to me, I have never abused my top positions in companies. I defy anyone to prove otherwise,” she said.
A judge also came under fire from the government after refusing a request from the public prosecutor to shelve a case involving Andrea Delmastro, an official from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist roots. Delmastro was accused of breaching secrecy rules after speaking out in parliament in relation to Alfredo Cospito, an anarchist jailed under a harsh regime usually reserved for mafia bosses.
Meanwhile, Ignazio La Russa, the president of the upper house and a Brothers of Italy co-founder, provoked controversy after casting doubt on rape allegations made by a woman against his son.
Maurizio Gasparri, a politician with the late Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, accused the judiciary of “attacking the constitution”.
But magistrates have hit back, arguing that the “false” accusations against them undermine trust in the judiciary. “To do this merely because a judge is doing his job conscientiously and is dealing with a case which happens to concern a politician … means delegitimising the judiciary,” Salvatore Casciaro, the secretary of the magistrates’ union, ANM, told Rai Radio 1.
Meloni’s government is trying to push through judicial changes, including limiting the use of wiretapping and abolishing the crime of abuse of office, both of which have been criticised by magistrates. The government is also seeking to separate the career paths of judges and prosecutors so they can no longer switch from one job to the other, a measure described by some magistrates as a way to “punish the judiciary”.
Carlo Sorgi, a retired magistrate, said: “It’s inevitable that this rightwing government, not being within legal parameters, clashes with those who have to enforce the legal parameters. When a case emerges [against one of their own] they feel scandalised. It’s absurd, but in reality they are attacking magistrates because they want faith in magistrates to be weakened in public opinion.”
Magistrates have often been accused of siding with the left by Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister and leader of the far-right League, who is embroiled in a trial for alleged kidnapping – which he denies – after refusing to let refugees disembark from a rescue ship in Sicily when he was interior minister in 2019.
“This row has been going on for 30 years,” said Gian Domenico Caiazza, the chair of the Italian defence attorneys’ association. “There is an imbalance between the judiciary powers and the political ones. It’s not a problem of left or rightwing, it’s a systematic issue … and each time a case emerges that hits a minister or undersecretary it touches a nerve.”
Elly Schlein, the leader of the centre-left opposition Democratic party, has criticised Meloni for remaining silent over the investigations, especially that involving Santanchè, who is accused of Covid benefit fraud as well as failing to pay suppliers and of firing staff without giving them redundancy payments. “It is absolutely unacceptable in a democratic system that, instead of responding to the serious accusations on the merits, Palazzo Chigi [the prime minister’s office] fuels a dangerous clash between the powers of the state by circulating a note with intimidating tones towards the judiciary.”
Francesco Galietti, the founder of Policy Sonar, a political consultancy in Rome, said: “This is a power struggle … you have one power that thinks it has a strong mandate which wants to suck the air out of another, which is hitting back, and it’s hitting where it hurts. The question now is how long it will take to reach a climax … and whether it could destabilise the government before the EU elections or not.”
