Back to 'parents', away with 'father' and 'mother' from the electronic identity card

The indication 'father'/'mother' on the electronic identity card is discriminatory because it does not represent all family units and their legitimate filiation relationships. The correct indication is therefore "parent". The Court of Cassation rejected the appeal by the Ministry of the Interior against the decision of the Court of Appeal to disapply the ministerial decree of 31 January 2019, by which the word 'parents' had been swept under the carpet to bring back into vogue the wording 'father' and 'mother' archived in 2015.

The Court of Rome had already ordered that only 'parent' be indicated on the electronic identity card of a minor, the child of two mothers (one natural and one adopted), who had resorted to step child adoption. For the judges, this was a compulsory way for the document, valid for expatriation, to give a representation of the marital status of the child, who had the right to obtain an identity card, also useful for travelling abroad, capable of representing his real family situation.

A right that the Cie model, prepared by the Viminale, does not guarantee because it does not represent all "the legitimate conformations of family nuclei and related filial relationships". The end result, for the ermines, is unreasonable and discriminatory. Unsuccessfully, the ministry - which is appealing against the two women and against the municipality of Rome - argues that the 2019 model was prepared in compliance with the current domestic rules on civil status records. Italian law, in fact, only allows and legitimises the formation of birth and civil status documents indicating 'father' and 'mother'. In addition - in the ministry's opinion - the disapplication of the decree violates the concept of bigenitoriality in force in our legal system, as well as entering on a collision course with the principles of public order.

But for the Supreme Court, none of this happens. The case examined, concerning the electronic identity document, did not concern a question ofmarital status. Nor has the disapplication undermined the concept of bigenitoriality but, on the contrary, provided a correct indication of the data corresponding to the parental figures. Otherwise, the electronic card, as provided for by the Ministerial Decree of 2019, allowed only one of the two mothers to be appropriately indicated "and required the other to have its parental relationship classified according to a mode - 'father'- not consonant with its gender". Finally, the judges recall that adoption in special cases now produces full effects and, after the Consulta's ruling 79/2022, also gives rise to relationships with the adoptee's family.

Applause for the Supreme Court ruling from the opposition. Alessandro Zan, responsible for rights in the national secretariat of the PD and MEP, entrusts his satisfaction to a note "Salvini's decree was shameful for a civilised country, Piantedosi defended it to the last with Meloni's assent, while some Italian families were humiliated in the offices of our municipalities,' Zan said, 'the right fills its mouth with empty words in defence of minors and families, but case law today confirms the opposite: there was a precise discriminatory intent.