The Government has decided to challenge the Campania law on the third mandate and to appeal to the Constitutional Court. Vincenzo De Luca, President of the Campania Region since June 18, 2015 and re-proclaimed on October 9, 2020, an experienced politician representing the Democratic Party, insists on his candidacy, since the laws on the subject of Veneto, Piedmont and Marche have not been similarly challenged.
The vexed question on the maximum limits of mandates for the top positions of directly elected executives therefore reappears in all its force and significance. And it would probably be important to operate a dutiful balance between that or those that could appear to be the foundation(s) underlying the ban on multiple consecutive mandates and the potential preference expressed in the secrecy of the ballot box by the People of voters. Perhaps saying it differently, if, on the one hand, the ban in question is characterized by being considered as a counterweight to the so-called personalization of power attributable to the monocratic body at the top of the executive, specifically the President of the Region by virtue of his direct election, on the other hand, the preference expressed by the voter, called in any case to operate the choice between multiple candidates for the Presidency of the Region, therefore not only with respect to the possible outgoing President of the day, should, with good verisimilitude, be able to assume its significance: “vox populi, vox dei”. Even more so when, no provision for a term limit for the Prime Minister, as highlighted by several parties, was enunciated at the time when the Government of Giorgia Meloni proposed a change to the Constitution aimed at introducing direct election. And even more so when, in the circumstances, it would constitute a contradiction in legal and political-representative terms, the persistence of a limit of this consistency for Mayors and Presidents of Regions and not instead for a directly elected “Premier”, if we wanted to call him that.
Meaning that if the usefulness of the limit of mandates, in relation to all levels of government, must be confirmed as a basic rule, then it should actually be so in all territorial contexts without exceptions of any kind. The limit should apply to everyone, otherwise, and differently, it should not apply to anyone. Especially if such a limit is aimed at excluding any form of personalization and self-referentiality of power. On a purely constitutional level, the limit appears to be conceived to protect certain essential principles, such as, for example, equal conditions among candidates, the freedom of vote of individual voters and the transparency of electoral competition, the general turnover of the political class. On an empirical level, one could reply, as has often been pointed out by many parties, that the existence of a limit to the mandate, in absolute terms and not otherwise surmountable, can result in the paradox of exclusion (from the electoral competition of specific reference) of valid long-standing political representatives, with the consequent loss of precious skills coming from anyone who has developed over the years a deep knowledge of their territory and its needs. First of all, because continuity in the political action of territorial government would seem to constitute an added value in terms of practicality. Then because continuity in the management of local affairs, where citizens decide to hypothetically confirm the outgoing administration and its President, would seem to appear in theory suitable to favor the continuity and systematicity of the interventions already started and evidently found to be appreciated by the voters. Therefore, at this point, all that remains is to await the pronouncement of the Constitutional Court on the Law of the Campania Region concerning the third mandate.
Time will tell then. Because, although this is a decision that will be made with reference to the Campania Region Law, there is no one who cannot see that the De Luca issue intersects with that of all the other equally valid and long-experienced Presidents of the Region, potentially eligible for re-election for a third term, including Luca Zaia, an expression of the League.
Giuseppina Di Salvatore – Lawyer, Nuoro
© Riproduzione riservata
***** l’articolo pubblicato è ritenuto affidabile e di qualità *****
Visita il sito e gli articoli pubblicati cliccando sul seguente link