Among the personalities who took to the field to announce their No in the referendum on justice reform Mario Monti It was perhaps the most unexpected. For two reasons: because the senator for life usually limits his interventions to the economic field and because he is keen to "emphasize" his role as an independent parliamentarian "who is neither part of the majority nor the opposition". Therefore his No, as he explained in a recent interview with Corriere della Sera , "it is not a vote to punish the Government." So why is Senator Mario Monti voting No on the justice reform? "In this referendum," he explains, "there is a text and a context." And what is the crucial point? "I fear that this reform - which according to most would not have significant effects on the efficiency of justice for citizens and businesses - would weaken the Rule of law“. This is the fundamental point, although not the only one. “Italy must continue to stand on the side of the rule of law, in the life of the country and in the international system” but “the only indisputable effect of the reform would be to shift thebalance of powers between the executive and the judiciary, in favor of the former." This is what worries the former prime minister and pushes him to vote No.
But in Monti's orientation there is also great attention to the "context” of the reform, which is not the intent to punish the Meloni government or to favor the opposition but rather the concern for how the Executive and the Prime Minister are moving both domestically and internationally. Domestically, what Senator Monti does not like is "the profound intolerance that has often characterized the current Government when the judiciary or the Court of Auditors have sanctioned its actions" which reads "the intent to weaken some of the protections of the rule of law, seen as unacceptable obstacles to the executive branch." This is not how a modern state is governed, according to the former prime minister, but on the contrary, by leveraging "cooperation and the ability to motivate"
Finally, there is the international aspect of the "context." Faced with the arrogance of the American President Donald Trump, the Prime Minister has proven, according to Mario Monti, to be too timid. "It is true that in the last few days Giorgia Meloni has given some small signs of slight departure from the American president, but overall, no signs of rethinking or distancing from a model of public administration, from Trump to Orban, that is unhappy with the rule of law, have emerged in his words and government actions." In conclusion, Monti explains: "I would like our prime minister to find in Italians a barrier to potential temptations to undermine the rule of law, in the mistaken belief that this is the obstacle to better governance." Therefore, NO in the referendum on justice reform.
