Time yes, Consult no. This solution resolves the rift opened in the Democratic Party by Luciano Violante, who yesterday expressed a controversial position on the fate of Silvio Berlusconi, immediately renamed "Lodo Violante".
The jurist and leader of the Democratic Party had said that, "if the conditions were met", it would be "legitimate to appeal to the Constitutional Court or to the Court of Justice of Luxembourg" on the Severino law, which imposes the vote for forfeiture from Parliament and would prevent the Cavaliere to stand as candidate even after having served the additional penalty of disqualification from public office.
Violante had also underlined that he spoke in a personal capacity: "Certainly the position of the party is that of the secretary". And the party's position is, in fact, another. The Democrats intend to give Berlusconi more time to defend himself, but there is talk of weeks.
The vote of the Immunity Board (called to express itself on the Cavaliere's forfeiture from the office of senator) must arrive before the decision of the Court of Appeal on the duration of the interdiction, expected for October. At the end of the Mediaset trial, in fact, the Cassation had confirmed the four-year sentence of the former prime minister for tax fraud, prescribing the redetermination of the accessory penalty, initially indicated at two years.
If the junta were to wait for the Consulta's further pronouncement on the constitutionality of the Severino law, the vote would risk being postponed for several more months. Not to mention that it should be the Senate election junta that raises the question of constitutionality. An unacceptable perspective from the point of view of the democrats: "The sentences must be respected", reiterated several times by the Pd secretary, Guglielmo Epifani.
Meanwhile, as a defense with reference to the issue of decadence, Berlusconi's lawyers filed today with the junta for the elections of the Senate six opinions of jurists and constitutional lawyers accompanied by a short letter signed by Berlusconi. In the text, the Knight also announces the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg against the application of the Severino law.
