Carlo Nordio, the minister who guarantees all handcuffs and prisons

Minister Nordio is taking it out on the Court of Cassation because the Court has expressed very severe judgments on the security decree, which recently became law. In an interview with Il Messaggero , the minister argued that the criticism of the Court of Cassation is an insult to the President of the Republic. Nordio's idea is quite clear. In the field of law, what matters is good manners. If you respect that, then you can do whatever you want.

Minister Nordio knows that it is almost impossible to find a serious jurist around who is not horrified by that authoritarian and Hungarian-inspired decree. Since he is a man of law with a guarantor past, he knows very well that that decree was imposed on him by the majority for purely political propaganda reasons and to provide those who govern with strong instruments of repression that serve to contrast and overturn the guarantorism of our Constitution. He also knows, because it is very obvious, that the decree is unconstitutional. And in fact, rightly, in the interview he does not spend a single word to contest the critical observations of the Cassation or to defend the merit of the decree. He tries to get out of the difficulty by hiding behind the shield of President Mattarella.

It is true that the political problem exists. The reason why the President of the Republic signed that decree is inexplicable. Probably the only reason is precisely that of good manners. It must have seemed to him an excessive rudeness to the government to send back that text explaining that Italy, since 1945, has been a democratic country. And therefore it cannot accept authoritarian laws and blatant violations of the law. That is the only issue. Minister Nordio should understand that if on one side of the scale there is good manners and on the other side there are the rights of citizens, and in general the principles of the rule of law, the side of rights weighs more. Naturally, remaining in the field of kindness, which is in any case a gift, we must recognize some extenuating circumstances to Minister Nordio.

It is true that he has a glorious past as a guarantor, expressed and demonstrated also with his articles published in the past precisely by Il Messaggero. And it is true that when he agreed to join the center-right government he was convinced he was joining a government composed of guarantor parties. Then it happened that Berlusconi left the scene and it was realized that the guarantorism of the right was due exclusively, or almost, to him. But that the true nature of the Italian right, its DNA, is very similar to that of Travaglio. So much so that the first part of Nordio 's interview with Il Messaggero is a copy and paste of a recent article by Marco Travaglio in Il Fatto in which he explained how the problem of prison overcrowding can be solved without resorting to useless and harmful reforms or infamous pardons (those requested in his time by Wojtyla, with success, and by Bergoglio without success). Now the poor minister is there: between a rock and a hard place. With the left criticizing him because he wants – rightly – to separate the careers of magistrates, and the right demanding handcuffs and handcuffs at full blast. It’s easy to argue with him, but put yourself in his shoes if you can…

FROM

Piero Sansonetti