Consult, dispute between poles and eighth black smoke on the judge. And on Thursday there is a clash over the separation of careers

We are moving towards a new ballot (on a date yet to be set) for the election of the constitutional judge who has been missing since November 2023 when president Silvana Sciarra concluded her mandate. After seven failed ballots, the eighth ended with 323 blank ballots, 10 invalid ballots, 9 missing votes and no abstentions. 363 would have been needed to elect the vacant judge. But some in the centre-right, although present in Montecitorio, did not even vote after it was decided to opt for the blank ballot.

The decision to give up the count on Francesco Saverio Marini would have been made this morning around 11 am, until late yesterday evening contacts continued between Palazzo Chigi and the center-right group leaders to verify the numbers of the operation. The belief of the coalition and of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was to carry on, then – says a ‘big’ – a package of votes failed and it was decided to return to the blank ballot scheme. Among other things, all the majority groups had provided the list of those absent, including the sick. Many had given up on missions, “I had to go abroad and instead…”, an undersecretary spreads his arms.

In Montecitorio we also saw parliamentarians who normally do not participate in the work but at least a dozen yes votes were missing from the abacus, even if – observes an alliance source – today’s vote served to “bring out the propaganda” of the centre-left. At the moment there is no intention to change sides, Fdi’s allies, while underlining that the acceleration was a risky move because the numbers were in the balance right from the start, keep the political point on the legal advisor to the Presidency of the Council .

The centre-left – from the Pd to +Europa, from M5s, Iv to Azione – did not participate in the vote, the tension between the centre-right and the opposition is at very high levels: “We have blocked them”, rejoice the forces that do not support the executive. “We cannot support the blitz of the majority forces. We have left them alone in the Chamber with their paranoia, to find the traitors within the Brothers of Italy”, claimed the M5s president Giuseppe Conte. “Now let them accept the dialogue with the opposition that they have refused to have up to now”, relaunches the dem secretary Elly Schlein. “They want to block the institutions, they put democracy at risk. They must take responsibility”, the wrath of Fdi which focuses on the Aventine strategy “against everyone and everything”. “They certainly can’t tell us who the candidate should be”, repeats the organizational manager of Fdi Giovanni Donzelli, while the group leader in the Chamber Tommaso Foti warns: “Who wins and who loses will be seen at the end of the championship”.

In Fratelli d’Italia today Giovanbattista Fazzolari, Daniela Santanche’, Andrea Di Giuseppe, Raffaele Fitto, Elisabetta Gardini, Giorgia Meloni, Attilio Pierro, Eugenia Roccella were missing. In FI Licia Ronzulli, Deborah Bergamini, Patrizia Marrocco, Pietro Pittalis, Alessandro Sorte, Antonio Tajani. Two are absent from Noi Moderati: Calogero Pisano and Franco Tirelli. Twelve Lega MPs absent: Lucia Borgonzoni, Gianmarco Centinaio, Matteo Salvini, Simona Bordonali, Umberto Bossi, Francesco Bruzzone, Andrea Crippa (although present in Montecitorio), Giancarlo Giorgetti, Elena Maccanti, Nicola Molteni, Massimiliano Panizzut, Rossano Sasso.

“The alleged conflict of interest of the Prime Minister’s legal advisor is a bluff. In September 2022, Marco d’Alberti, legal advisor to President Draghi, was appointed to the Consulta”, Fdi sources say. “Conflict of interest for Marini? There is nothing wrong if before becoming a judge of the Consulta he had been the prime minister’s legal advisor. What is wrong if someone first worked at Palazzo Chigi?”, observes Foti.

“I’m counting on there being someone in the opposition who is closer to the country’s needs,” said the deputy prime minister and minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini. The same thesis is relaunched in Fdi. There are rumors in the coalition that in recent days the dialogue had opened with the Five Star Movement as well as with the representatives of the mixed group and the linguistic minorities. “Filling the void in the Constitutional Court, as hoped for by the President of the Republic, is an institutional duty”, reiterates Maurizio Lupi of Noi moderato.

We now look to November 12, when the Council will have to express its opinion on the appeals presented by five regions against the Autonomy reform. But there will also be a battle on the separation of careers: on Thursday the Constitutional Affairs commission of Montecitorio will adopt the government’s text. The executive carries on, among other things, again on Thursday, a ministerial decree on procedural rules that would concern personnel and the prison commissioner could end up on the table of the Council of Ministers (the environment decree is also likely to be on the agenda while in the next meeting it could a provision from the Ministry of Health arrives).

“The separation of careers is the first objective”, says Keeper of the Seals Carlo Nordio to AGI, “the first vote would be a turning point”. The deadline for submitting amendments to the constitutional bill has been set for October 23rd. The aim is to bring the dossier to the Chamber by the end of December. “I am optimistic” about the times “and I think it is correct that we also go to a referendum, because it is right that citizens express themselves on a matter like this and I am convinced that they will approve our choice”, said the Minister of Justice in a interview with Skytg24, “it is not a punitive reform towards magistrates”.

The opposition is ready for a new battle in the Commission. And there is a wall against a wall between the majority and the opposition also on the Rai front: today in the presidential office of the Supervision Commission the 5 Star Movement attempted to set a date to arrive at the vote on Simona Agnes, the government’s candidate for president of the company viale Mazzini, while FI asked for time. There will be a plenary on Wednesday but it is likely that there will still be no white smoke.