The Constitutional Court rejects Campania law on third mandate: “It violates the Constitution”

Rome – The Constitutional Court said illegitimate the law of Campania region which allowed the outgoing president of the regional council, already in office for two consecutive terms, to apply for a third term.

The rule, approved with the Regional Law No. 16 of 2024, provided that the counting of mandates would begin from the mandate in progress on the date of entry into force of the law itself. A trick which, according to the Constitutional Court, circumvents the ban on third consecutive terms established by state law, thus violating thearticle 122 of the Constitution.

In an official note, the Court explained that "with this last clause, the Campania legislator has made inapplicable, for the next electoral round, the fundamental principle of the prohibition of the third consecutive mandate established by the state legislator with law no. 165 of 2004".

The ban – the Court recalls – is valid for all ordinary regions that they have adopted an electoral law within the framework of the direct election of the President of the Council. The Campania regional law, therefore, has been considered in contrast with the fundamental principles provided for by the law of the Republic and therefore constitutionally illegitimate.