plan was essential<\/a> to guarantee impartiality and improve the functioning of Italy\u2019s creaking justice system.<\/p>\nBut critics slammed it as a political power grab that fails to address the real challenges, from years-long trials to prison overcrowding.<\/p>\n
Elly Schlein, the leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, said before the vote that the proposal is poorly drafted and \u201cweakens the independence of the judiciary\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fight with judiciary<\/p>\n
Meloni and her ministers have repeatedly attacked rulings they claim are too lenient, particularly on immigration.<\/p>\n
Their proposed reform sparked intense opposition within the judiciary, with more than 80 percent of members of Italy\u2019s National Magistrates Association staging a one-day strike last year.<\/p>\n
The referendum campaign was hard-fought and bitter.<\/p>\n
In a public spat last month, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio \u2013 who had called criticism from judges \u201cpetulant litanies\u201d \u2013 said the reform would correct a \u201cpara-mafia mechanism\u201d within the judiciary.<\/p>\n
Giusi Bartolozzi, Nordio\u2019s chief of staff, also drew widespread criticism when she said during a talk show that the reform would \u201cget rid of\u201d magistrates who operated like \u201cexecution squads\u201d.<\/p>\n
The most divisive part of the reform involved changes to the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), an oversight and disciplinary body whose members are elected by their peers and parliament.<\/p>\n
The reform was going to divide the CSM into two separate councils, one for judges and one for prosecutors, and create a new 15-member disciplinary court.<\/p>\n
Members were planned to be drawn by lots, no longer voted on by their peers, with three members of the court chosen by Italy\u2019s ceremonial president and three from a list of experienced lawyers approved by parliament.<\/p>\n
The second part of the reform aimed to prevent judges and public prosecutors from switching between the two functions, addressing concerns that overly cosy relations between the two groups harmed defendants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giorgia Meloni concedes defeat in the high-stakes vote on a justice reform package, but vows to continue as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[782,63,42,2971,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-354731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-courts","tag-europe","tag-headlines","tag-italy","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}