The Prisons Decree is law. Nordio asks for a meeting with Mattarella on pre-trial detention

The Chamber of Deputies definitively approved the Prisons Decree with 153 yes, 89 no and 1 abstention, just as at Palazzo Chigi the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met the Carlo Nordio Guardasigilli, the Ostellari undersecretaries, Delmastro, Sisto and the chairmen of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies Justice Committees Giulia Bongiorno and Ciro Maschio to take stock of the next "steps to be taken" to tackle the prison emergency that "remains a priority".

At the end of the summit, Nordio let it be known that he had asked for a meeting with President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and intended to propose 'changes to the rules on pre-trial detention'. But the government meeting unleashed protests from the opposition: 'The fact that while Parliament is voting on the decree, a meeting is being held at Palazzo Chigi with Meloni, Nordio and all the undersecretaries and chairmen of the Commissions on the same subject,' observed the Pdora Serracchiani, the Justice Party's Justice Minister, 'shows in what consideration you hold Parliament'. Opposition MPs called for an urgent briefing of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Chancellor Carlo Nordio on the prison emergency.

On behalf of the oppositions, the vice-president of the Avs deputies, Marco Grimaldi, telephoned the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Lorenzo Fontana, to ask for 'the immediate convening of a conference of group leaders' and to define 'a reparatory action' by the Guardasigilli, Nordio, for what had happened in the afternoon on the prison issue. For the centre-left, 'it is a slap in the face of Parliament' that while the prison decree was being voted on in the Chamber of Deputies, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was meeting with Nordio, his undersecretaries, and the chairmen of the Justice commissions of the chambers at Palazzo Chigi to 'take stock of the prison emergency and overcrowding'. Fontana assured that he would inform the minister of the request.

'As part of the usual interlocution between the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Justice, today, at the request of President Giorgia Meloni, a meeting was held in the presence of Ministers Carlo Nordio, Antonio Tajani, Giancarlo Giorgetti and Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss future planning, which is obviously not intended in any way to interfere or overlap with the work in progress in the sovereign parliament,' the Ministry of Justice said.

In turn, 'the President of the Chamber, with regard to today's work on the issue of prison overcrowding, reaffirms the centrality of Parliament, whose prerogatives must be guaranteed through the confrontation of ideas and the assumption of responsibilities by all stakeholders'.