Milan, 22 April (LaPresse) – "The affair surrounding the unconstitutional incentives for lawyers and the embarrassing turn of events in Parliament is set to go down in history. It seems to me there are signs of an unprecedented degeneration of the legislative process.” This is the view of constitutional expert and full professor at Sapienza University Gaetano Azzariti, in an interview with the daily newspaper La Repubblica, commenting on the provision that provides for a €615 incentive for lawyers handling voluntary repatriation cases, should their clients choose to return to their respective countries of origin. According to Azzariti, the provision “not only legitimises, but also rewards with a cash payment the lawyer’s conduct of unfaithful representation. Article 30 bis, in essence, establishes a link between the incentives and the predetermined outcome—namely, repatriation—of the defence counsel’s assistance: and this is in blatant contrast to the principles of the Constitution”. “Both the substance and the method are truly beyond any reasonable political debate on such sensitive issues, as well as being outside the bounds of the law,” adds the constitutional expert, “and this serious debasement is accompanied by a rather cavalier use of decree-laws, now employed as ‘stopgaps’.”
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