Italy’s overreaching judiciary has met its match in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

A national referendum delineating the powers of the courts is coming in 2026.

On October 30, Italy’s press agency, the Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, reported that “the government’s constitutional reform of the judiciary, including the separation of the career paths of prosecutors and judges so they can no longer switch between the two roles, was approved by the Senate.”

According to the Meloni administration, this ensures that defendants will get a fair trial.

“Today, with a fourth and final reading of the constitutional justice reform, we are taking an important step toward a more efficient, balanced and citizen-friendly system,” wrote Signora Meloni on X.

And this rectification could not come at a better time.

The latest spasm of judicial encroachment is the Italian Court of Auditors’ rejection of the Ponte sullo Stretto — the Strait of Messina Bridge.

The asininity of this decision defies imagination.

Stalling the construction of one of the 21st century’s most pivotal infrastructure projects has nothing to do with environmental concerns or public spending issues.

These magistrates care very little that the Ponte would be an economic boon to the south of Italy, creating jobs and raising the entire nation’s international profile.

Their mantra is MISA — Make Italy Small Again.

It is a leftist political shot across the bow designed to thwart and destabilize the Meloni government. The Green and Left Alliance’s Angelo Bonelli called the ruling a “great victory for the rule of law.”

Rather, it’s a win, however temporary, for the beast of lawfare.

As noted on Euroactiv news, Signora Meloni called the Court’s ploy “yet another act of judicial invasion into government prerogatives.”

And according to ANSA, she excoriated the pronouncement as an “intolerable intrusion” into the government’s jurisdiction.

The Deputy Premier and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, called the ruling “a political choice rather than a calm technical decision.”

No doubt stung by the Italian Parliament’s approval of the coming referendum, the Corte dei Conti pounced.

Indeed, Reuters reported that the Court’s ruling occurred “against the backdrop of tensions with the judiciary over a radical government shake-up of the country’s legal system that parliament approved.”

Overhauling the nation’s politicized judiciary is long overdue. Long before anyone coined it, lawfare existed in Italy.

Nevertheless, Signora Meloni will not provoke a constitutional crisis.

Mr. Salvini, who spearheads the Ponte project, promises to dot every i and cross every t in responding to the Audit Court’s concerns.

Reuters noted the Deputy Premier’s carefully modulated tone: “We await the court’s remarks with complete calm and are confident we can answer them point by point, because we have complied with all regulations.”  

Il Tempo reported that Salvini also averred: “If we need to return to the cabinet in early December and resubmit to the Court of Auditors all our reasons for proceeding, we will do so.”

Still, Mr. Salvini couldn’t resist tweaking the Corte dei Conti, saying that the magistrates took their anger over next year’s referendum out on Sicilians and Calabrians.

In ReggioToday, the President of the region of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, found the Court of Auditors’ position “absurd,” but he is nonetheless “certain that the (Meloni) government will forge ahead with a process that is at this point irreversible.”

Moreover, he noted what an immense opportunity the Ponte sullo Stretto affords Calabria and Sicily to demonstrate the regions’ boundless human capital.

Only the capocchis et ignorantibus, “blockheads and ignoramuses” — to borrow Filippo Brunelleschi’s Latin phrase — would repudiate such a monumental infrastructure project.

And only dunderheads and obstinate leftists would oppose the reformation of the judiciary, which will likely take place in March and April 2026. 

Elly Schlein, who heads the Partito Democratico, depicts the reform as an attempt by the Meloni government “to put itself above the law.”

And the Movimento Cinque Stelle’s Giuseppe “Giuseppi” Conte accuses the governing coalition of seeking “full powers.”

Confident that the Italian people will vote in favor of the referendum, Signora Meloni avers: “Italy continues its path of renewal, for the good of the nation and its citizens. Because a more just Italy is also a stronger Italy.”