The Chamber of Deputies confirmed its confidence in the government on the PA decree. 203 deputies voted in favour, 34 against and three abstentions. The Assembly will now move on to examining the 149 agendas, presented almost all by the opposition, which will be obstructive. The provision must be converted into law by 21 June.
In fact, the Pa decree law contains, among other things, the tightening of the controls by the Court of Auditors on the expenses of the Pnrr and the extension of the tax shield.
Court of Auditors: what the PA decree provides
The amendment reduces the control powers of the Court of Auditors on the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The accounting judges will no longer be able to carry out the "concomitant check", ie during construction, on the projects of the Plan. A decision that has provoked the wrath of the opposition (Pd and M5S, while Action and IV are in favour) which has defined the operation "scandalous", arguing that the amendment "severely damages the balance of powers".
The clash between Meloni and the magistrates
The line of the executive remains that of the last few days and was reiterated to the Prime Minister in an interview with Quarta Repubblica, on Rete4: “The left is in great difficulty. Not only does it say that there is an authoritarian drift if on the Court of Auditors, you extend the rules of the Draghi government. I quietly observe that we are doing what the previous government did. They say that there is an authoritarian drift on the Court of Auditors which continues to carry out checks, prepares the half-yearly report and no one has put a gag on it”.
The accounting judges, however, reiterate theirs clear opposition after an extraordinary meeting convened, at the request of the base, precisely in conjunction with the arrival in the Chamber of the measure. "The functions of the accounting judiciary are not at stake but the protection of citizens", is the alarm raised by the Court. “Confirmation of the tax shield - the magistrates write in a note - in the absence of the pandemic emergency context in which it was born, it prevents the prosecution of those responsible and the recovery of distracted resources, ensuring that the damage remains borne by the community. At the same time, the abolition of ongoing checks, on activities specifically aimed at relaunching the economy, means weakening the safeguards of legality, regularity and correctness of administrative action”. With confidence in this text - meanwhile the opposition is protesting - it sets in a double gag: to the judges and the Parliament.
To justify the Government has also intervened in recent days Sabino Cassese, president emeritus of the Constitutional Court, during a meeting at the Turin Economy Festival. “He has done very well the government a limit preventive control of the Court of Auditors,” Cassese said. “There are aspects of merit on the controls and of method on the way in which this story took place which prove the government completely right and demonstrate that the large state corporations should rethink the way they act towards the state of which they are the representatives,” he explained.
