Constitutional judge, eighth black smoke from Parliament. No quorum for Marini

New black smoke in the joint session of Parliament called to elect a Constitutional Court judge to replace the former President of the Consulta, Silvana Sciarra, whose term of office ended on 11 November 2023. The eighth ballot also ended without an election. There were 342 present and voting, 9 missing votes, 10 void ballots, 323 blank ballots. This ballot would have required 363 votes to elect the judge, i.e. the three therefore of the 605 Italian parliamentarians..

White board. This is the indication that came in late morning from the centre-right for the election of the missing constitutional judge by the Parliament convened at 12.30 p.m. in joint session. From the calculations within the majority, evidently there were not the necessary numbers or the quorum was in any case too risky to make the operation desired by Giorgio Meloni to have Francesco Saverio Marini, legal advisor to Palazzo Chigi, elected today as the missing judge of the Constitutional Court. Three-fifths of the components were needed, amounting to 363 votes.

The majority's decision was influenced by the position of the oppositions (PD, M5s, Avs, Iv, Azione and +Europa), which were united in not taking part in the vote (MPs did not withdraw their ballot papers). This morning in the Chamber on the election of a member of the Consulta, "in the face of a forcing on something fundamental for democratic guarantees, we will not participate in the vote," said the PD secretary, Elly Schlein, to Live In Sky Tg24. "There cannot be on Meloni's part a proprietary attitude to institutions". With the other oppositions "we have been in touch and coordinated".

And again, after the centre-right's decision to vote blank: 'The unity of the opposition has stopped the forcing that the majority wanted to do, now they accept dialogue. And when I speak of dialogue, I don't mean blunt calls to parliamentarians" from the minority "to seek votes to go ahead with their own forcing. If there is a qualified majority for this vote, it is precisely because the Constitution provides for dialogue between majority and opposition'. "We have sought dialogue and the response so far has been a wall, let us hope that the fact that they have stopped is the premise that a dialogue will now begin."

In the majority, the abacus checks to see if there were enough numbers to reach the white smoke did not go well. The absences of ministers Antonio Tajani and Raffaele Fitto, who are engaged abroad, and the probable absence of Umberto Bossi, due to a precarious health condition, have brought the numbers available to Fratelli d'Italia, Lega, Forza Italia and Noi Moderati down to 352. Lorenzo Cesa and Antonino Minardo, Maria Stella Gelmini, Giusy Versace and Mara Carfagna would have made it 357. Francesco Gallo and Andrea De Bertoldi, enrolled in the Chamber's Misto, and Linguistic Minority MEPs Dieter Steger and Franco Manes could have been added, thus rising to 361. Two votes short of the required quorum of 363, representing three-fifths of the House. At the end of the last checks, the majority therefore decided in extremis not to confirm its intention to aim straight for the election of its candidate. A backward march dictated by the desire to 'not burn it out', since the numbers were so poised that they risked not making it.