Mattarella signs the civil protection law but underlines: too many exceptions on impunity

"Despite being aware of the undoubted peculiarities of some activities physiologically exposed to high risk profiles, I address an invitation to Parliament and the Government to evaluate whether differentiated interventions in the field of criminal liability are appropriate for specific sectors outside of coordination according to homogeneous criteria". This is what we read in the conclusion of the letter that the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, sent to the presidents of the Chambers and to the Prime Minister.

The President of the Republic has passed the law that reforms civil protection but has made public the doubts of the Quirinale on some very delicate aspects which concern a sort of criminal shield with the introduction of exemptions that are too broad with respect to responsibilities, foreseen both in cases of minor negligence and in cases of serious negligence. He did so by announcing that he had signed the law - definitively approved on 21 October - through a letter sent to the presidents of the Senate and Chamber, Ignazio La Russa and Lorenzo Fontana, and also to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The most delicate point for the Quirinale concerns the management of emergencies and the "cause of non-punishment for political authorities, civil protection operators and volunteers who commit negligent crimes". Generally speaking, the head of state underlines the problem of the proliferation of categorical rules which can lead other sectors to ask for the same in criminal matters. In fact, with the letter to the top officials of the State, Mattarella asks that "a coherent regulatory framework" be adopted. Precisely in the conclusions we read: "Despite the awareness of the undoubted peculiarities of some activities physiologically exposed to high risk profiles, I address an invitation to Parliament and the Government to evaluate whether differentiated interventions are appropriate in the matter of criminal liability for specific sectors outside of coordination according to homogeneous criteria. Evaluation to be carried out also in consideration of possible similar requests from other professional categories. The objective must be to define a coherent regulatory framework inspired by the same principles and criteria, in order to ensure that any different regimes are characterized by reasonableness and fairness".

The letter also captures purely political doubts about the expansion of the non-punishment instrument in the civil protection sector and, probably, not only in that. In fact, the president addresses the Chambers and the Government as if to remind them that it is not the first time that a provision extends the possibility of impunity for some specific categories. "The law - argues the Head of State - is, moreover, part of the recent tendency to abandon the configuration of negligent liability as a unitary phenomenon, in favor of a proliferation of different rules based on the characteristics of the various contexts considered. In the specific case, the indicated cause of non-punishability introduces - adds Mattarella - a very broad derogation from the general liability for negligence since, unlike what happens in other professional fields, it is also extended to serious negligence, not limiting non-punishability to incompetence but including negligence and imprudence". More than an invitation to the Chambers to proceed with a modification of the law just approved, it seems like a halt to future measures of this type.