If the new date set for a
joint parliamentary session to elect three Constitutional Court
judges is not "usefully used to arrive at a nomination" then the
time has come to proceed with unlimited voting, Senate Speaker
Pietro Grasso said Thursday.
Parliament is to reconvene in a joint session next Tuesday
to elect three judges to the 15-member court after none of the
candidates reached the necessary quorum of 571 votes on
Wednesday.
Augusto Barbera, Giovanni Pitruzzella and Francesco Paolo
Sisto all fell short of the mark after being agreed in a deal
between the Democratic Party (PD) of Premier Matteo Renzi and
ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) with opposition
from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S).
"After 28 votes I think we demand that our parliament and
the political class finally come up with an answer," Grasso
said.
"At a time of international crisis it is a weakness that we
cannot show," he continued.
The PD and FI have both confirmed their candidates.
The constitutional court is composed of 15 judges of whom
five are appointed by the president of the republic, five by the
supreme council of the magistrature and 5 by parliament in a
joint session.
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