The glories of Clean Hands and anti-mafia heroes are very far away. The fact is that the country is sick of judicial brawls at every level. The referendum is based on this.
A big question, or perhaps a swarm of questions, is gathering on the horizon of the future referendum on separation of magistrates’ careers. As always happens, the referendum question is only the opportunity and the façade, if not the pretext, to express a judgment on the judiciary and its powers; on the relationships between politics and togas, and on government and opposition, clearly divided between yes and no. Once again, the meta-referendum it crushes and obscures the real referendum. Another important unknown will be measuring the degree of participation in the referendum vote, whether Italians consider it decisive, important, optional or irrelevant and not very relevant for the common citizen. A referendum insidiousa double-edged sword, and not only for the judges but for the executive and the opposition, as has already happened in the past.
What do Italians really think of magistrates?
But the main question remains in the background: what do Italians think of this category? An ancient distrust, mixed with fear, coexisted in our country with a certain respectful deference towards the magistrate and his power. From the unification of Italy onwards, a large part of the country did not trust the State and its representatives, they considered it intruderprone to abuse, still a stranger, lowered from above. But as time passed, prejudices had weakened and in some cases overturned in the name of law and order. The magistrates’ poor visibility, discretion and darkness surrounded their figure with an almost halo sacrallost with their recent protagonism. In some ways they were the tabernacle of the State, and the toga itself almost took on the meaning of a ritual and liturgical vestment, almost of a lay priesthood. And they took on even more prestige when linked to the police, starting with the carabinieri, a guarantee of safety and legality.
From the Seventies to 1992: fractures and myths
Then came, in the Seventies, the war on the State and its institutions and the magistrates began to be attacked and discredited as colluding servants of power, of the masters and of class justice. On the other hand, the infiltration into the ranks of the corporation began of a class of ideological militants who took on the task of “democratizing” it and removing it from both its presumed neutrality and its subordination to the potentates. A significant portion of the judiciary remained organic to political power, while another ideologically based judiciary grew from below, that of the assault praetors and of red robes.
The decisive year was 1992 because he intertwined two stories that made the army of judges central in the ethical, public and civil life of our country: on the one hand the investigation of Clean hands and on the other the fight against the mafia with the assassination of illustrious victims such as Giovanni Falcone And Paolo Borsellino. It was then that the judiciary had the maximum popularity, the people invoked Antonio Di Pietro and the Clean Hands pool to sweep away political corruption and lead Italy; the magistrate was seen as thehero against common crime and political malfeasance.
Over time, however, especially the long war between the palaces of justice and Silvio Berlusconi undermined their credibility, radicalized positions for and against the judiciary. Then too many cases of errors, abuses and bad justice they brought the caste into disrepute. Today it is difficult to say whether the political class or the professional class is more frowned upon. The referendum will also be a test of this type.
A justice seen with nausea
Today it can be said that the vast majority of people have overcome both the gallows justice that thehyper-guarantee and he is sick of these permanent squabbles over justice. Furthermore, the emergency of the sector does not only concern the careers of magistrates or relations with political power.
Italy is the European country born of the highest legal tradition and father of the most infamous judicial situations. The politicization of the judiciary is a real problem but it concerns an organized minority, and in any case it is not the main problem of justice: ours is the country that has the largest number of unenforced lawsthe worst trial timethe highest rate ofimpunityand of sentences overturned in subsequent grades. Four conditions that make our justice system pathological.
The conflict between powers has become a pathology
The conflict between powers – executive, legislative and judicial -, within a certain threshold, is a guarantee of freedom and rights because it indicates that there is no hegemonic power over others; there is a scale of balances, an autonomy of spheres and a dialectic between powers, even harsh ones. But that conflict has crossed the physiological level, it is pathological and we cannot live in a permanent civil and penal war. Without considering the invasions of the international courts as well as the frequent incursions of our local high courts (from the Constitutional Court to the Supreme Court of Cassation to the Court of Auditors).
Then there is another insidious factor: for some time now, in trials, too much has mattered “climate”. Sentences and procedures are too influenced by the moment, by the crimes that make the most trend, the most news and the most media impression. There are blame cycles and innocent cycles that periodically strike many types of crimes and widen and narrow depending on the moments and the degree of mobilization around them.
It’s scary emotional justice“psychicable” and variable like the weather conditions. We’ll see what the climate will be like at the time of the referendum. However, how fragile and fragile justice is in Italy.
