Third term, the right backtracks: the law that saves Zaia is ready
The Government's U-turn
The government had challenged the Campania law to block De Luca's path. The Constitutional Court had confirmed the ban, giving the government the right. But now the government is preparing to give the green light to Zaia quater...
Countermand, comrades! If it were not for the opposite political reference, one could say the same for the about-face - apparently - of the Government and the center-right majority on the issue of the third consecutive mandate of the presidents of the Regions. A brief summary of the previous episodes of what is taking on the dimensions of a real political-institutional feuilleton. Introduced in 2001 the direct election of the presidents of the Regions, the state legislator, only in 2004, introduced the principle according to which they cannot hold office for more than two consecutive terms.
The first problem already arises: since when? Is the mandate of someone who is already President valid? In the (deliberate) absence of express indications by the legislator, it is agreed that the introduced principle is not retroactive. This allows Formigoni and Galan, who had already been Presidents of the Lombardy and Veneto regions (1995-2000), to be able to do a second (2000-05) and a third mandate (2005-10). Everything solved? Not at all! Second problem: does the introduced principle apply automatically starting from 2004 or from when it is implemented by the regional laws on the matter to which the state law expressly refers? Also in this case, obviously, the looser interpretation prevails. Thus, since the ban on a third mandate is implemented in Veneto with a law only in 2012, this allows Zaia, already elected for the first time in 2010, to be able to run for re-election a second (2015) and third (2020) time. The Marche region does the same, approving a law that allows President Spacca, already in office in 2005 and 2010, to run for office a third time (this time unsuccessfully) in 2015.
Accomplice the failure to challenge these laws before the Constitutional Court, first of all by the governments of the time ( Monti and Renzi ), the game of delaying the application of the ban on third mandates is gaining ground and is attempted by Piedmont in 2023 and Campania in 2024, so as to allow President De Luca, after the two mandates of 2015 and 2020, to be able to run again this year. Only this time, in a burst of constitutional legality - or, if you are suspicious, for mere political calculation in order to prevent third mandates in the Regions not governed by exponents of Fratelli d'Italia ( Lombardy and especially Veneto, where we could even be in our fourth mandate!) - the Meloni government decides to challenge the Campania law before the Constitutional Court. Which, as was widely predictable, last May 15th states that the ban on the third consecutive mandate for the Presidents of the Region is a fundamental principle that binds the regional legislators since they adopt the first electoral laws after 2004. And since it is a fundamental principle, it also applies to the Regions with special statutes.
For this reason, last May 19, the Meloni government challenged the law of the autonomous province of Trento that would allow President Fugatti a third term. The game therefore seemed definitively over, also due to the weight of the arguments put forward by the Constitutional Court, according to which the limit of two consecutive terms constitutes the point of balance between direct election of the head of the executive and the consequent inevitable concentration of power that derives from it in the hands of a single person. It is therefore a limit that, even before affecting the government structure, affects the democracy of a State because it is intended to prevent the lack of rotation in the office of President of the Region from causing forms of stratification and consolidation of the system of power that end up damaging the actual equality of opportunity between candidates, the freedom of voting of voters, correct electoral competition, the necessary physiological turnover of political representation; in short, in a single word, the democracy of regions and local authorities.
It is no coincidence, moreover, that the States in which the ban on a third term has been lifted ( Venezuela, Nicaragua, Russia, El Salvador, Egypt, China ) or is intended to be lifted ( United States, Turkey ) are marked by authoritarian tendencies. Instead, the news of recent days tells us of a sudden and unmotivated rethink on the issue by the center-right majority, or perhaps it would be better to say by its relative majority party, as if nothing had happened so far and, specifically, as if the Constitutional Court had not ruled. The choice to ignore the Court's rulings, and in particular the definitive and decisive reasons given in support of what constitutes a necessary limit in democracy to avoid excessive concentrations of power, denotes a lack of institutional sensitivity, all the more serious because it is the result of an unsteady and contradictory constitutional policy, bent to the political needs of the moment.
If we then add to all this that, in order to achieve the desired result by the next regional elections, we are willing to resort to yet another parliamentary coercion, the institutional picture becomes even more bleak and disturbing. Since, in fact, due to the foreseeable opposition of the Quirinale, the path of yet another decree law seems impracticable (by the way, despite the hypocritical reassurances about the reduced abuse, the 100th anniversary is being celebrated these days: hurray!), we are considering proposing an amendment to the bill ( AS 1452 ) currently being examined by the Senate Constitutional Affairs Committee, which deals with something completely different (the number of regional councillors remaining unchanged if the population increases or decreases by 5% and an increase of two in the number of assessors in regions with up to 2 million inhabitants).
In short, in order to reach the destination, you take the first train that passes and attach a carriage to it, with all due respect to the requirements not only of homogeneity but also of coherence, considering that, as admitted by the President of that Commission, it is not clear why the Presidents of the Regions could have a third term and the Mayors of Municipalities with more than 15 thousand inhabitants cannot . Even more serious, bordering on constitutional subversion, would be to extend the regional legislatures in the absence of serious reasons (as was the case during the pandemic) just to have more time to repeal the limit of the third term. In short, the issue of the third term is too serious and important from a constitutional and parliamentary perspective to be reduced to a simple political bargaining chip between parties that would otherwise demonstrate that they have lost their sense of respect for institutions.
l'Unità
