ITALIAN PRIME minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a major setback yesterday when, for the third time in seven years, Italy’s constitutional court rejected legislation that effectively guarantees him immunity from prosecution while in office.
Like the 2004 Schifani law and the 2009 Alfano law, the so-called “legitimate impediment” legislation, introduced by the Berlusconi government last year, fell foul of the court, which again argued that it contravened Article 3 of the Italian constitution, which states that all citizens are equal before the law.
Even if the constitutional court did not reject every clause of the “legitimate impediment” law, the net result of yesterday’s ruling could well be the resumption of three Milan-based trials (Mills, Mediaset and Mediatrade) in which the prime minister is accused of bribery, corruption, tax fraud and perjury. These cases were effectively blocked by the introduction of the legitimate impediment legislation.
Commentators pointed out yesterday, however, that even if all three trials were to resume immediately, they would almost certainly be cancelled by the statute of limitations. Given that the presiding judges in the three cases have since been moved to other courts, all three trials would have to start again from scratch, making it highly unlikely that the courts would arrive at a definitive verdict before the statute of limitations becomes operative.
While yesterday’s ruling will almost certainly not lead to a future court judgment against Mr Berlusconi, it may nonetheless cause him grave political problems.
Having narrowly survived (by three votes) a pre-Christmas confidence vote, his centre-right coalition now depends heavily on the support of the federalist Northern League.
Within minutes of yesterday’s ruling, senior Northern League figure Giacomo Stucchi said the government must now proceed “one step at a time”.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the first step would be the immediate approval of a federalist reform package, keenly promoted by the league and due to come before parliament later this month. If negative fallout from yesterday’s ruling were to halt that reform, he added, then the only alternative would be early elections.
It could be, however, that early elections might in the end suit Mr Berlusconi. On Wednesday, the constitutional court ruled that an abrogative referendum, called by opposition figure Antonio Di Pietro and intended to completely reject the legitimate impediment law, can be held this spring.
If such a referendum is held – and after yesterday’s ruling that is no longer certain – it would almost certainly end up becoming a nationwide confidence vote on Mr Berlusconi and one that, in present circumstances, he might lose heavily.
In the meantime, Mr Berlusconi is likely to come out fighting, starting this morning when he is due to appear on a TV chat show on his own Canale 5 station where he will doubtless defend himself, while attacking some sections of the judiciary.
Speaking in Berlin earlier this week, he called the court cases “ridiculous”, saying he was “indifferent” to yesterday’s ruling and that it would not affect the stability of his government.