Justice Minister Carlo Nordio has mooted bringing in changes regarding this felony, which punishes people who are not part of organised-crime syndicates but to some degree collude with them.
He has said the felony is the result of jurisprudence, rather than a specific law in the criminal code.
He has said it would be better to have a specific law.
Elly Schlein, the leader of the opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said Saturday that, by mooting changes to this felony, the government gave off a bad “signal” about the fight against the mafia.
“I perfectly understand Nordio’s assessments about external participation in mafia association,” Meloni said during a visit to Pompeii.
“I, however, would concentrate on other priorities.”
The row over external participation in mafia association has erupted amid high tension between the government and magistrates’ union ANM over Nordio’s justice reforms.
The ANM has blasted the government’s plans to separate the careers of Italian prosecutors and judges, so that it is no longer possible to switch from one role to the other.
It has also criticised a justice-reform bill that seeks to abolish the crime of abuse of office, change the felony of influence peddling, clamp down on the publication of information obtained from wiretaps and the cancel prosecutors’ rights to appeal against acquittals for many minor crimes.
ANSA
