The Senate on Wednesday passed a
confidence vote on the first article of the government's reform
of the criminal justice system by 208 votes to 28.
The reform was approved by the Lower House last month and moved
to the Senate after parliament's summer recess.
The package, aimed at speeding up the system, caused
considerable tension within Premier Mario Draghi's coalition
before a compromise was reached at the end of July.
The reform, drafted by Justice Minister Marta Cartabia, sets
limits on the time it can take to rule on first appeals and on
cases at the supreme court.
It effectively waters down a reform passed by Alfonso Bonafede,
a 5-Star Movement (M5S) lawmaker who was the justice minister in
ex-premier Giuseppe Conte's two coalition governments from June
2018 until the start of this year.
Bonafede's reform puts the statue of limitations on hold after
the first-instance ruling in order to stop criminals getting off
because their cases get timed out due to the slowness of the
legal system.
The judiciary's self-governing body, the CSM, said a huge number
of cases would end up being shelved if the Cartabia reform had
been approved in its original form.
The M5S demanded changes to the reform to stop this happening,
which led to a compromise in which crimes regarding the mafia,
terrorism, sexual violence and criminal association are handled
under a different regime.
Speeding up Italy's notoriously slow judicial system is
necessary, among other things, because the granting of EU COVID
Recovery Plan funds is conditional upon it.
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