On the steps of the Court of Cassation with a tricolor cockade on the toga and the Constitution clutched in his hands. It is the symbolic image of the day of strike of the Italian judiciary against the justice reform carried out by the Meloni government. An initiative that the same judges do not hide is "strong" because "it is a power of the State" that decides to cross its arms, a choice that aims to submit to the attention of public opinion a legislative project, starting with the separation of careers, which according to the judiciary essentially aims to "limit jurisdiction". The percentage of adhesion, which is close to 80%, is greeted as a success for an initiative, the various factions reiterate in unison, that does not represent the defense of a corporation, "of a caste", but of the Constitution.
"We are not defending any privilege - explains the president of the ANM, Cesare Parodi - but we want to explain to citizens why this reform was desired. An image of the judiciary has formed in public opinion that certainly does not correspond to reality. A negative narrative about the robes was desired".
In the districts, on the territory, the adhesion has homogeneous percentages. Judges, public prosecutors, have stopped the activity in the courts for 24 hours.
"They want to weaken us," the secretary of the ANM, Rocco Maruotti, cut short, speaking from the stage of the Adriano cinema, in the capital, during a crowded assembly. "The objective is to deprive the jurisdiction of authority," but on this point "there is no room for negotiation because the independence and autonomy of the judiciary is a non-negotiable matter," he added.
The fact that is forcefully reiterated is that the mobilization does not end with the strike but that, on the contrary, the abstention is the first step of a road map that has in the meeting with the government, scheduled for March 4, an important turning point. "Ours is like a cry of alarm launched to civil society, to all women and men of good will - explains Giuseppe Tango, exponent of Magistratura indipendente, the moderate current -. We feel the concrete and serious danger that the reform of the Constitution under discussion today will do a disservice to the citizens' demands for justice" and "we cannot remain silent".
Making the concerns of an entire sector known to everyone, this seems to be the primary need. "Today is only the first step - observes Giovanni Zaccaro, secretary of Area - of a long journey. We must make everyone understand the risks of the Nordio reform that affects the constitutional structure of the judiciary". From tomorrow "the debate and discussion" will continue even if today a "united" response arrives on a choice, that of the strike, defined as "challenging" but necessary to "attract the attention of public opinion". For Magistratura democratica, the left-wing current, the government project aims to "reduce the independence" of a power of the state "as a whole" while for Unicost today a compact response arrives in defense of "the autonomy and independence" of the judiciary which is "a key principle of democracy and balance between powers".
(Online Union)