Justice referendum, Anm rejoices: 'The Constitution won. Today is a good day"

'The Constitution has won'. Lapidary was the note of the Central Executive Council of the ANM, which emphasised that 'today is a good day for our country. Not for the judiciary, but for all citizens. However, this result is not a point of arrival, but a starting point'. 'We have contributed to preserving the autonomy and independence of the judiciary, protecting the Constitution,' the note reads. 'Citizens have democratically confirmed the goodness of our choices and our indications on the real problems of justice. We thank all those who have engaged with us in these months in defence of the Constitution. The relationship with civil society has enriched the judiciary and we will know how to find the tools so that this wealth is shared and benefits the whole country'.

"We have witnessed an important mobilisation," recalls  the National Association of Magistrates, "which was born out of a confrontation with civil society and which resulted in a democratic participation in the vote that restores a sense of belonging to the republican institutions, which is the best way to celebrate 80 years of universal suffrage.

And Enrico Grosso, university lecturer and president of the 'Just Say No' committee, who has been caught up in the controversy over the Ministry of Justice's urging him to clarify collateralism with the ANM, thanks the voters: 'It had been years since we had seen so many people go to vote after being told that Italians had lost all affection for public affairs. The idea that this new enthusiasm has been aroused by an issue that has directly to do with the Constitution, as a constitutionalist, excites me'.

From the opposite front, the bitterness of the Penal Chambers, which have spent a lot of effort in a battle of identity and coherence with the accusatory penal process. For president Francesco Petrelli, 'there is a fact with which we will all have to come to terms because objectively in the context of this referendum campaign an extraordinary fact has occurred: a exculpation of the judiciary with respect to its ordinary task as an organ of jurisdiction'.

And Petrelli relaunches: 'From Clean Hands onwards we have had to note that the judiciary has become more and more political subject. But at the time of Mani Pulite the consensus that was sought by the judiciary was of the media type, whereas we have witnessed a qualitative leap that consisted of the ANM founding a committee. It means that the judiciary has overflowed outside of what should be its vocation of institutional impartiality'. In any case, Petrelli warns, what is needed now is 'a big construction site to tackle those ills of justice that are also recognised by the 'no' front, such as unfair detention and the degeneration of currents'.