Quali limiti alla responsabilità dei Ministri? – S. Caporiccio
Le continue strumentalizzazioni da parte della classe politica delle immunità, quali prerogative costituzionali, hanno minato la credibilità delle istituzioni e dell’assetto democratico, determinando il progressivo mutamento delle immunità in sostanziali impunità accordate ai membri del Governo. L’esigenza di delimitare la responsabilità dei ministri è emersa non solo per evitare indebite sottrazioni ai limiti posti dall’ordinamento bensì per consolidare il vincolo di legalità dell’autorità pubblica nei confronti dei cittadini.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the critical points of the political immunities and ministerial offences. The continuous instrumentalisation of immunities has undermined the credibility of the institutions, leading to the gradual transformation of immunities into substantial impunities granted to members of the government. The Constitutional Law n. 1 of 1989 re-established the terms of the criminal liability of ministers by means of a process of depoliticisation that brought the discipline back into the light of the overall constitutional framework. Indeed, it is a process that did not end with the 1989 reform, as evidenced by the clamour following the Diciotti case. In fact, this case has highlighted the inadequacy of the discipline: the wide margin of politicisation and the risk of instrumentalisation and it brought new problems concerning the inviolable limits within ministerial activity should be bound. It also highlights the concrete risk of a «free zone» of constitutional law within any offence, regardless of its gravity, could be justified. Hence, the need to broaden the debate and to provide new solutions regarding these limits.