Meloni bets on a lottery to curb Italy's judicial clans

ROME, March 11 - Italy has tried random selection before. Read more at straitstimes.com.

ROME, March 11 - Italy has tried random selection before.

Ancient Romans used to cast lots to decide who governed in distant provinces while Renaissance Florence pulled names from bags to avoid powerful families gaining a stranglehold on power.

Now Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is looking to revive the centuries-old tradition of "sortition" as a way to stop what she says are political factions lording it over Italy's long-troubled judiciary.

The plan to select magistrate members of judicial governing councils by lottery lies at the heart of a reform being put to referendum on March 22-23, pitting Meloni's conservative government against most of the nation's judges and prosecutors.

Recent opinion polls show the "no" camp, backed by the main opposition centre-left parties, has nudged ahead, threatening one of Meloni's signature initiatives which was championed by her predecessor Silvio Berlusconi before his death in 2023.

Berlusconi, who faced dozens of trials largely tied to his media empire after entering politics, accused the judiciary of being in the hands of the left. Magistrates denied this, but Meloni vowed to take up his crusade after she won power in 2022.