Gratteri criticises Meloni over salary adjustments: "That money is due to public prosecutors." Donzelli (FdI): "Everyone is making sacrifices."

"Regarding the Council of State’s decision, we are not talking about a pay rise. In previous years, an incorrect calculation was made regarding the adjustment. Meloni was imprudent to say she would not sign.” So said the Chief Prosecutor of Naples, Nicola Gratteri, on the programme ‘Otto e mezzo’ on La7, regarding the Council of State’s ruling on salary adjustments for magistrates and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s decision not to sign the decree for the increases. Gratteri described the move as “effective in the media”, even though the Prime Minister “knows that a commissioner will be appointed and that the payment will go ahead anyway. This is money to which magistrates are entitled by law. Magistrates must not negotiate their salaries with the political establishment, precisely for the sake of their independence”.

The magistrate went even further. “Someone explain to me,” he continued, “why this year the salaries of officials at Palazzo Chigi were increased by 500 euros and new staff were taken on, without anyone batting an eyelid. We must be consistent. Do we want to cut magistrates’ salaries? Well, let’s do the same for politicians and senior officials,” he said. 

The controversy between the judiciary and the political sphere (already well and truly alight for other reasons) has been further fuelled by the comments of Giovanni Donzelli.  “If everyone is making sacrifices because of international crises, I don’t see why the state should spend a billion on pay rises for magistrates who, I would remind you, already earn adequate salaries,” said the MP and head of organisation for Fratelli d’Italia, speaking on the programme Ping Pong. "With all the hardship and difficulties we are facing at the moment, Italy is coping well – much better than many European nations – but international difficulties do exist. Objectively speaking, the fact that magistrates are the only ones to receive such substantial pay rises does not strike me as appropriate for this nation," stated Donzelli. As for the possible appointment of an ad acta commissioner to enforce the ruling: “Certainly, we will also ask the ad acta commissioner not to do so, not to proceed at this time. They can wait; we can assess the situation; they can even agree to a smaller pay rise.”