A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #21-25 - Repression decree. The ordinary extraordinary emergency (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The issuing of the so-called security decree and its approval present 
clear elements of forcing exercised by the Government that further 
consolidate the tendency towards the centralization of powers. ---- This 
is what can be deduced from the report presented by the Office of the 
Massimario and the Role of the Court of Cassation, a sort of research 
office with the task of carrying out the systematic analysis of the case 
law of legitimacy. ---- The report is very long and detailed; for this 
reflection it is sufficient to deal with chapter 3 of the preamble, 
which deals with general constitutional issues. The Office takes up in 
its writing what was stated by the Appeal for a democratic security, 
according to which we are faced with a "real wound caused to the 
legislative function of the Chambers", given that the legislative 
process of the security bill, pursuant to art. 72 of the Constitution, 
"was almost over, when the government took over the text and a task 
that, according to art. 77 of the Constitution, it can only carry out in 
extraordinary cases of necessity and urgency".

According to the professors of constitutional law heard by the joint 
Commissions I and II of the Chamber during the conversion process of the 
decree, we are facing "a real democratic regression, with a leap in 
quality in the attack on constitutional legality, as well as on 
fundamental rights". The Observatory of the Italian Association of 
Constitutionalists also noted that we are facing "government bullying"; 
the Italian Association of Professors of Criminal Law criticized, in 
addition to the content, the method, which has created "a precedent that 
could fuel a practice that devalues the role of Parliament". The Office 
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations 
expresses particular concern about the Italian Government's decision to 
transform the security bill into an emergency decree, bypassing 
parliamentary scrutiny and public debate; with regard to the merits, the 
same body highlights the risk of excessively targeting specific groups, 
such as ethnic minorities, migrants and refugees, configuring itself as 
a potential cause of discrimination and violations of human rights.

Subsequently, the Office of the Massimario examines other aspects of the 
security decree, an examination from which critical issues emerge from a 
constitutional point of view, such as the lack of the requirements of 
extraordinary necessity and urgency, the delayed presentation to the 
Chambers, the heterogeneity, the use of emergency decrees in criminal 
matters, in addition to the failure to comply with the constitutional 
principles in criminal matters.

Reading the text of the Court of Cassation, we can therefore conclude 
that this decree shares with other previous legislative interventions 
critical aspects from a constitutional point of view, linked to 
emergency decrees, with which the government appropriates the 
legislative power that should belong to Parliament, reduced to the role 
of ratifying decisions taken elsewhere. This practice is aggravated by 
the particular path of this decree, first presented to the Chambers, 
then, given the difficulty of approving it without amendments, "ripped 
off" by the Government and re-presented in the form of a decree law to 
prevent its discussion and amendment.

The parliamentary opposition immediately jumped on the bandwagon, 
denouncing the behavior of the government in office and the risk of 
accentuating the authoritarian drift. The parliamentary opposition, 
obviously, plays its game and tries to put the current Government in a 
bad light and to present itself as a champion of freedom.

In essence, however, it does not say what the authoritarian drift is 
made of and that we are not faced with an Italian anomaly, nor an 
anomaly of this government. To stay with the news of recent years, the 
appointment of the Draghi government and the subsequent confirmation of 
the outgoing president Sergio Mattarella, the main supporter of the 
government in office, to allow Mario Draghi himself to remain prime 
minister, once Draghi's hope of becoming president of the republic had 
faded, are a fitting example: a ballet that took place entirely in the 
rooms of the Quirinale and Palazzo Chigi, in which ordinary citizens 
were not involved, but in which the self-styled representatives of the 
people played the role of extras.

Precisely the growing crisis of capitalism, incapable of producing 
profit margins sufficient to sustain the credit system, a crisis that 
reached explosive levels in Italy before anywhere else, makes it 
necessary for governments to increasingly intervene in support of the 
economy, that is, of capital accumulation. In the same way that 
capitalist, industrial and financial groups are concentrated, the power 
of political choice must be concentrated in the hands of governments and 
international supra-governmental organizations (European Union, NATO, 
IMF, etc.), less exposed than governments to the "volatility" of 
electoral bodies.

The government in office has made the security decree a flagship 
measure. It is absolutely right: the procedure followed for its approval 
is part of the series of measures that have progressively deprived 
Parliament of its power, to the point of reducing its number and making 
it an assembly of clients of the party secretariats, strengthening the 
power of the executive and above all of the presidency of the republic 
which in the last legislatures, beyond the character temporarily on that 
seat, has intervened several times when Parliament was incapable of 
indicating a prime minister acceptable to the economic and financial 
powers. The Meloni government presents itself with this measure to its 
true voters, to those who have everything to lose from the growing 
social discontent.

While in Italy security issues are resolved with measures that resemble 
the ukazes of the tsars, in the United States the Trump administration 
resorts to executive orders, in France Emmanuel Macron uses the 
extraordinary powers of the president to impose a pension reform not 
wanted by the majority of the French working classes, while in Germany 
the government has a defunct parliament approve a mammoth rearmament 
plan. These are not aberrations: political domination throws off the 
mask. Governments, incapable of satisfying everyone, support the big 
capitalists in exchange for the support they receive; for the others, 
for those who are neither clients of the parties nor vassals of the 
captains of industry, there are security decrees to keep them in check. 
Israel teaches us.

Tiziano Antonelli

https://umanitanova.org/decreto-repressione-lordinaria-emergenza-straordinaria/
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