CSM: the ‘non-aligned’ Nardecchia is the first to be elected to the Court of Cassation

The counting of votes for the election of the judicial members of the Superior Council of the Judiciary , comprising 20 councillors in total. Of the two seats allocated to the Court of Cassation – a single national constituency – the first has been won by the ‘independent’ Giovanni Battista Nardecchia, aged 62, Deputy Attorney General at the Supreme Court, whilst the second was won by the Area candidate, Egle Pilla; Nardecchia received 1,759 votes and Pilla 1,704. A victory for the progressive camp with Nardecchia, whose candidacy was backed by the ‘Autogoverno diffuso’ network, in direct continuity with that of the outgoing councillor Roberto Fontana, who was backed by Magistratura Democratica, and Pilla, until recently president of the main left-wing group.

A major defeat Independent Judiciary, which also fielded the former national secretary of the ANM Salvatore Casciaro, who received only six fewer votes than Pilla but was likely ‘crippled’ by internal conflict within MI, which led to the solo candidacy of Luisa De Renzi, a deputy public prosecutor close to the conservative faction and backed by former secretary Claudio Galloppi.

As regards public prosecutors, Eugenio Albamonte and Stefano Buccini were elected in the first prosecutorial constituency. Buccini, a deputy public prosecutor in Venice and a candidate for ‘Magistratura Indipendente’, received 941 votes. Albamonte, a candidate for ‘Area’, former president of the ANM and currently a deputy public prosecutor at the DDA, received 926 votes. In third place is the candidate for ‘Autogoverno diffuso’ Roberta Amadeo, with 902 votes; she may, however, be included as the highest-placed third-placed candidate.

The ballot at the Court of Cassation continued late into the evening for the second panel of public prosecutors , who are allocated a total of five seats, and will continue today for the allocation of the 13 seats set aside for judges.

And on Wednesday 28 October, regarding the election of the lay member, ten councillors, no decision was reached during the joint sitting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. A qualified majority of three-fifths of those entitled to vote was required – and will also be required in the second ballot – whilst from the third ballot onwards, three-fifths of those voting will suffice. An agreement between the political parties remains a long way off, with their differences centring not only on the names to be put forward, but above all on the number of councillors allocated to the majority and the opposition.