“Meloni will sign the Prime Ministerial Decree on magistrates’ arrears”, sources at Via Arenula tell Il Foglio

“You’ll see that in the end the Prime Minister will sign the Prime Ministerial Decree on magistrates’ salaries, perhaps spreading the payments over instalments.” Well-informed sources at the Ministry of Justice have told Il Foglio that the government’s intention is quite different from that expressed by Giorgia Meloni on Sunday, when she announced that she did not wish to give the go-ahead to the Prime Ministerial Decree that would unlock pay rises and back pay for magistrates. Furthermore, the actual figures involved are said to be a far cry from the one billion euros suggested in some press reports, and closer to 200 million euros. In short, Meloni’s statement may simply have been a Sunday bluster.

The need to take action to adjust judges’ salaries has been confirmed by numerous recent administrative rulings, both by the Regional Administrative Court (TAR) and the Council of State, in which the Ministry of Economy and Finance has consistently been unsuccessful. In early July, the Council of State, upholding the appeal lodged by the National Magistrates’ Association, ordered the government to revise upwards the salary increases for magistrates that had been set by a Prime Ministerial Decree (DPCM) for the three-year period 2018–2020, in implementation of the two laws from the 1980s providing for the triennial adjustment of magistrates’ salaries. The calculations carried out by Istat, which formed the basis of the first Prime Ministerial Decree, were in fact deemed to be incorrect. On 14 August, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court also annulled the acts underpinning the Prime Ministerial Decree of 3 June 2024, which instead concerns the adjustment of magistrates’ salaries for the three-year period 2021–2023, finding the government’s calculations to be incorrect in this case as well.

The government is obliged to comply with these rulings. Enforcement proceedings are already underway to implement the first ruling, and should the Prime Minister’s Office continue to oppose its implementation, the Council of State could even appoint a commissioner to act in its stead. In that event, the government would also risk facing financial liability for the interest accrued in the meantime in favour of the judges as a result of the delays.

The total amount the government is required to pay is reportedly lower than the figure circulated by some media outlets, but the situation is also quite different from how it has been portrayed: the Council of State simply stated that the salary increases calculated by the government for previous years were incorrect, and the claim that every magistrate will receive a ‘bonus’ of 100,000 euros is unfounded. The arrears range from a few hundred euros for the most junior magistrates to around 10,000–15,000 euros for those with the longest service (and include all the years in which their salary was not adjusted as required by law).

In short, if the government does not like the system of periodic automatic pay adjustments (which, incidentally, also applies to other categories of public sector employees such as university lecturers and the armed forces), then it should change the laws – but in the knowledge that these changes would only apply in future, whilst for now it cannot avoid complying with the court rulings. “There was a case, there was a ruling; if the government complies fully, and if it fails to comply or complies only partially, we will proceed with enforcement proceedings. We believe in the rule of law,” stated – understandably – the deputy secretary of the ANM, Stefano Celli, following Meloni’s remarks, which appear to have sparked a purely populist controversy.

Meanwhile, yesterday it was the words of a magistrate that reignited the row. “The little woman from the suburbs has no time to sign a decree. An ad acta commissioner will take care of it! Poor Italy”, wrote Alessandro Di Cicco, a magistrate serving at the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office, on his Facebook profile. These remarks were described as “inappropriate” by the ANM, which distanced itself from the magistrate. Subsequently, Public Prosecutor Di Cicco stated that his Facebook profile had been hacked and that he had “lodged a complaint at the police station”.