Hiding from miscarriages of justice is a political choice

Yesterday, the Chamber of Deputies approved, with 178 votes in favour and 97 abstentions, the bill establishing 17 June – the anniversary of Enzo Tortora’s arrest – as a national day dedicated to the victims of miscarriages of justice. The centre-right, Italia Viva and Azione voted in favour. The PD, M5S and AVS abstained. The bill now passes to the Senate. It is only right to commend those who voted in favour. Not because a national day will solve the problems of the justice system, but because it acknowledges a simple fact: miscarriages of justice do exist, they have serious consequences and they deserve public attention. More difficult to explain are the abstentions recorded yesterday in the Chamber of Deputies. One can debate the date and the usefulness of such commemorations. But if one agrees with the principle and yet still chooses not to vote in favour, the decision becomes a political one.

Gian Domenico Caiazza, a lawyer and contributor to this newspaper, has quite rightly spoken of the “local Don Abbondios who abstained” and interpreted that vote as one of the debts that the PD, M5S and AVS must repay to the ANM leadership in the run-up to the referendum battle. We are familiar with the problem: part of the opposition continues to struggle to utter the word ‘guarantism’. Guarantism does not mean defending the guilty or attacking magistrates. It means remembering that even the judiciary must have limits, checks and responsibilities. It means standing up for those who are wrongfully arrested, those who are acquitted after years, and those who suffer harm that no compensation can ever fully undo (in 2025 alone, the state recognised 648 cases of wrongful imprisonment – almost two a day – paying out 28.7 million euros in compensation). Those who abstained on the national day dedicated to the victims of miscarriages of justice should therefore take a long, hard look at themselves and answer one question: what prevented them from voting ‘yes’? If the answer is the fear of appearing to be defenders of individual rights, the problem does not concern Tortora alone. It concerns the very idea of justice that one wishes to uphold.