Tajani: ‘lenient’ magistrates are releasing too many people. The ANM: responsibility for security must not be shifted onto us

“Citizens have a sacrosanct right to safety. As happened in Turin, too many people arrested in the act of committing a crime are immediately released by lenient magistrates. This causes public alarm and demotivates the police and the Carabinieri.” Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani wrote this in X.

 “You only need to speak to the police and to those who live in neighbourhoods with high crime rates to understand what I mean. I have never asked for the law to be disregarded; on the contrary, I have called for it to be applied in full. And I have asked magistrates to search their consciences every time they choose to release someone who has been caught in the act and who, once free, is ready to reoffend. The perception of impunity only helps criminals. Invoking the rule of law in the case of those arrested in the act is therefore disingenuous. The rule of law dictates that no innocent person should end up in prison. It does not mean that those arrested in the act can return to committing crimes the very next day”.

“The words of the Deputy Prime Minister are staggering because they give credence to a line of reasoning that runs counter to the rule of law. Judges must simply apply the law. Security cannot be guaranteed by shifting the responsibility onto the judiciary. Justice is not, and cannot be, a tool for intimidating anyone.” So stated the Central Executive Committee of the National Magistrates’ Association in a statement regarding the remarks made by Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, who argued that “the judiciary needs to be much stricter” when validating arrests, so as to send “signals that assure citizens that thugs cannot act with impunity”. “‘Punish one to teach a hundred’ – I believe that is necessary. And I believe that some magistrates need to search their consciences.”