Luigi Salvato appointed new Attorney General of the Court of Cassation

Luigi Salvato is the new Attorney General of the Court of Cassation. He was appointed by the CSM plenum by a majority vote in a meeting chaired by the President of the Republic. Currently deputy to the incumbent Attorney General, Giovanni Salvi—who will retire on July 9th—Salvato prevailed over his direct competitor, the Attorney General of Napoli Luigi Riello. In addition to being “the head of the prosecutors”, the Attorney General of the Court of Cassation is responsible, together with the Minister of Justice, for disciplinary action against magistrates and is a member by right of the CSM and its Presidency Committee. Salvato obtained 17 votes against the 8 that went to Riello.

Proposed by councilor Michele Ciambellini, it was supported by the Unicost and Area and Autonomia e Indipendenza groups, by independent judges Carmelo Celentano and Sebastiano Ardita and by the lay M5s, by the Attorney General of the Cassation Giovanni Salvi and by the first president of the Supreme Court Pietro Curzio and by the vice president of the CSM David Ermini, connected to the session remotely.

In favor of Riello, instead, all the councilors of Magistratura Indipendente, the independent Nino Di Matteo, the two lay members of Forza Italia and the lay member of Lega Emanuele Basile voted. What tipped the scales in favor of Salvato, at least according to his supporters, was above all the 4 years of management roles held in the Cassation (first as attorney general and then as deputy attorney general) considered by the CSM circular on top appointments to the Supreme Court as a preferential title.

A "medal" that was missing from Riello's CV, compensated however - according to the councilor of Magistratura Indipendente Antonio D'Amato who proposed his nomination - by the possession of another preferential qualification: "significant experience in the legal system" carried out by Riello first at the CSM, where he was a councilor from 2002 to 2007, and then at the Judicial Council of Naples.

In the judiciary since 1980, Salvato was a judge in the courts of Lagonegro, Santa Maria Capua Vetere and Naples and a member of the CSM Research Office, before arriving at the Supreme Court. At the Supreme Court he began as a magistrate in charge of the Massimario, then he was a counselor and then a deputy attorney general, before holding the managerial positions of attorney general since 2018 and deputy attorney general since 2020. Author of numerous essays, he was also an assistant to three constitutional judges.

At the Attorney General's Office of the Court of Cassation, he also dealt with the disciplinary sector and represented the prosecution in the trial of the former president of the ANM Luca Palamara, which ended with his removal from the judiciary.