ORDINANCE NO. 194
YEAR 2025
ITALIAN REPUBLIC
IN THE NAME OF THE ITALIAN PEOPLE
THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
is composed of:
President: Giovanni AMOROSO;
Judges: Francesco VIGANÒ, Stefano PETITTI, Angelo BUSCEMA, Emanuela NAVARRETTA, Maria Rosaria SAN GIORGIO, Filippo PATRONI GRIFFI, Marco D’ALBERTI, Giovanni PITRUZZELLA, Massimo LUCIANI, Maria Alessandra SANDULLI, Roberto Nicola CASSINELLI, Francesco Saverio MARINI,
has pronounced the following
ORDINANCE
in the constitutional legitimacy judgment of Article 21, paragraphs 1, letters a) and b), and 2, of the Law of the Sicilian Region of November 18, 2024, no. 27 (Provisions concerning urban planning and building. Amendments to norms), promoted by the President of the Council of Ministers with an appeal notified on January 17, 2025, filed with the Registry on January 20, 2025, registered under no. 4 of the appeals registry of 2025 and published in the Official Gazette of the Republic no. 7, first special series, of the year 2025.
Having heard the Report of Judge Roberto Nicola Cassinelli in the Chamber of Council of November 17, 2025;
Deliberated in the Chamber of Council of November 17, 2025.
Whereas, with an appeal notified on January 17, 2025, and filed on the following January 20 (Reg. Appeal no. 4 of 2025), the President of the Council of Ministers, represented and defended by the State General Advocate’s Office, raised questions of constitutional legitimacy regarding Article 21 of the Law of the Sicilian Region of November 18, 2024, no. 27 (Provisions concerning urban planning and building. Amendments to norms), with reference to Articles 1, 3, 5, and 114 of the Constitution, and Articles 14, letter o), and 15, third paragraph, of Constitutional Law no. 2 of February 26, 1948 (Conversion into Constitutional Law of the Statute of the Sicilian Region, approved by Royal Legislative Decree of May 15, 1946, no. 455), and in relation, "as an intervening ordinary norm," to Law no. 56 of April 7, 2014 (Provisions on Metropolitan Cities, Provinces, Unions and Mergers of Municipalities);
that the challenged provision amended the Law of the Sicilian Region of August 4, 2015, no. 15 (Provisions concerning Free Municipal Consortia and Metropolitan Cities);
that paragraph 1 of the challenged Article 21 provided for the following amendments: a) in paragraph 1 of Article 6, the words "on a Sunday between December 1 and December 31, 2024" are replaced by the words "on a Sunday between April 6 and April 27, 2025"; b) in paragraph 1 of Article 51, the words "to be held on a Sunday between December 1 and December 31, 2024 pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 6, and in any case no later than February 28, 2025" are replaced by the words "to be held on a Sunday between April 6 and April 27, 2025 pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 6, and in any case no later than June 30, 2025";
that paragraph 2 of the challenged Article 21 ordered the cancellation of the elections called "with Decree of the President of the Region no. 551/Gab of October 1, 2024";
that, following the indicated amendments, Article 6, paragraph 1, of Regional Law no. 15 of 2015 provides: "1. The election of the President of the Free Municipal Consortium shall be called by decree of the outgoing President, to be issued no later than the sixtieth day preceding the date of the vote. In the first application of this law, the election of the President of the Free Municipal Consortium, to be held on a Sunday between April 6 and April 27, 2025, shall be called by the President of the Region, upon proposal of the Regional Councillor for Local Autonomies and Public Administration, by decree to be issued no later than the forty-fifth day preceding the date of the vote";
that, furthermore, as a result of the challenged provision, Article 51, paragraph 1, of Regional Law no. 15 of 2015 provides: "1. In order to ensure the functionality of the vast area territorial bodies referred to in this law, until the installation of the bodies elected in the elections to be held on a Sunday between April 6 and April 27, 2025 pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 6, and in any case no later than June 30, 2025, the functions of President of the Free Municipal Consortium shall continue to be performed by a special commissioner appointed pursuant to Article 145 of the administrative regulation of local bodies in the Sicilian Region, approved by Regional Law March 15, 1963, no. 16 and subsequent amendments, while the functions of the Council of the Free Municipal Consortium referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 7-bis and those of the Metropolitan Council referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 14-bis shall be performed respectively by the Assembly of the Free Municipal Consortium and the Metropolitan Conference, which shall temporarily assume the role of bodies of political direction and control of the vast area body";
that the appellant challenges the postponement—to April 2025—of the election of the presidents of the free municipal consortia and the extension, until and no later than June 30, 2025, of the powers of the special commissioners;
that, the appellant continues, the postponement also concerns the election of the metropolitan councils referred to in Article 14-bis of Regional Law no. 15 of 2015, which states in paragraph 7, third period: "In the first application of this law, the election of the Metropolitan Council shall be called by the President of the Region, upon proposal of the Regional Councillor for Local Autonomies and Public Administration, by the decree referred to in paragraph 1 of Article 6, on the same date set for the election of the President and Council of the Free Municipal Consortia";
that, therefore, the appellant complains of the failure to hold the elections provided for by Regional Law no. 15 of 2015 in the regional territory of Sicily;
that, after recalling the sequence of regional laws that progressively ordered the postponement of the elections in question, and with it the extension of the commissioner regime, the appellant focuses on the Law of the Sicilian Region of August 8, 2024, no. 24 (Postponement of elections for vast area bodies), which had provided for the holding of elections on a date between December 1 and December 31, 2024, which was followed by the calling of the elections for December 15, 2024, by Decree of the President of the Sicilian Region of October 1, 2024, no. 551/Gab;
that, with the challenged provision, the Sicilian Region has once again postponed the elections, simultaneously extending the commissioner regime;
that the appellant refers to previous rulings of this Court concerning some of the numerous postponement provisions for the elections in question, specifically, Judgment no. 136 of 2023, which declared the unconstitutionality of Article 13, paragraph 43, of the Law of the Sicilian Region of August 10, 2022, no. 16 (Amendments to Regional Law May 25, 2022, no. 13 and Regional Law May 25, 2022, no. 14. Variations to the Budget Forecast of the Sicilian Region for the three-year period 2022/2024. Various provisions), and Judgment no. 172 of 2024, which declared the entire Law of the Sicilian Region of July 5, 2023, no. 6 (Transitional provisions on the elections of vast area body organs) unconstitutional;
that, as noted by Judgment no. 136 of 2023, through the postponements of elections and the extensions of the commissioner regime, the Sicilian Region has failed in its duty to establish the free Municipal Consortia provided for by Article 14, letter o), of the special statute, asserting that "the continuous postponement of the elections for their presidents, and consequently also the elections for the councils, has led to the non-establishment of the two elective bodies of the free Consortia, whose functions have been carried out for many years by a commissioner appointed by the Region" (point 3.6.2 of the Considerations in Law), concluding that the postponement "[…] consolidates, prolongs and aggravates the situation of substantial disregard for the obligations contained in Articles 5 and 114 of the Constitution which has characterized the structure of local autonomies in Sicily for many years" (point 3.7 of the Considerations in Law);
that, in the same ruling, this Court issued a warning highlighting the need to remedy this situation without further delay, "through the timely holding of the elections for the presidents of the free municipal consortia and the metropolitan councils, so that even in Sicily the intermediate bodies may be established and endowed with their constitutionally guaranteed autonomy, and the repeatedly extended commissarial management may cease" (point 3.8 of the Considerations in Law);
that, acknowledging that the warning had no effect, the appellant maintains that the provision challenged today is unquestionably in contrast with Articles 1, 5, and 114 of the Constitution, as well as the principle of reasonableness derivable from Article 3 of the Constitution;
that the principle of democracy under Article 1, first paragraph, of the Constitution would be violated as referendums and elections (even if indirect) represent the highest manifestation of popular sovereignty (referencing this Court's Judgment no. 1 of 2014);
that the challenged provision would also conflict with Articles 5 and 114 of the Constitution, as the autonomy and representativeness of the intermediate bodies would continue to be stripped of meaning by a commissarial management that lasts, in effect, sine die;
that the continuation of the commissioner regime for vast area bodies has resulted in their "derivation and dependence on the regional body," in disregard of their autonomy and in violation of the reform principle established by Law no. 56 of 2014, which configured the indicated bodies as expressions of the lower level of government (municipal) and not the higher level (regional);
that the umpteenth postponement provided for by the challenged provision would also be in conflict with the principle of reasonableness, since the exceptional situation that could justify the extension originally ordered in 2016, by Regional Law of April 1, 2016, no. 5 (Amendments to Regional Law August 4, 2015, no. 15 "Provisions concerning Free Municipal Consortia and Metropolitan Cities”), and the extensions that occurred during the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency period, between 2020 and 2022, cannot be invoked to justify further extensions;
that Articles 14, letter o), and 15, third paragraph, of the special statute, which attribute to the Sicilian Region exclusive legislative power in matters of "regime of local bodies and related constituencies" and in matters of "constituency, organization and control of local bodies," are also violated;
that, with a document filed on February 21, 2025, the Sicilian Region appeared in court, requesting that the appeal be declared inadmissible or non-prosecutable, or in any case unfounded;
that the regional defense acknowledges the sequence of its regional laws by which, after the entry into force of Regional Law no. 15 of 2015, the deadline for holding the elections for the organs of the vast area bodies has been repeatedly postponed, referring in particular to its Regional Law no. 16 of 2022, declared constitutionally illegitimate, for violation of Articles 3, 5, and 114 of the Constitution, by this Court's Judgment no. 136 of 2023;
that the subsequent Regional Law no. 6 of 2023 had not been declared constitutionally illegitimate as it was repealed by Regional Law no. 24 of 2024, which ordered a further postponement of the elections, to be held on a date between December 1 and December 31, 2024;
that the elections thus provided for had been called for December 15, 2024, by Decree of the President of the Sicilian Region of October 1, 2024, no. 551/Gab;
that, however, the shortness of the time available to organize the elections and the imminent occurrence of the established date made the regional parliamentary assembly aware of the necessity of a further postponement of the elections, with the simultaneous extension of the commissioners' mandates;
that, all the foregoing considered, according to the defending Region, the challenged provision constitutes a "necessary and indispensable" law, as it is aimed at implementing Articles 1, 5, and 114 of the Constitution, in conformity with the exhortations contained in the aforementioned Judgment no. 136 of 2023, representing, at present, "the only transitional norm" that allows for the follow-up to what is provided for by Law no. 56 of 2014, whose provisions constitute fundamental norms of economic-social reform;
that the literal text of the challenged provision does not show the will of the regional legislature to refrain from holding the elections, as confirmed by the fact that they were called—to be held between April 6 and April 27, 2025—by Decree of the President of the Region of February 13, 2025, no. 512/Gab, subsequent to the State's appeal;
that, finally, the regional defense signals as problematic the issue of the consequences of any declaration of unconstitutionality of the challenged provision, once the elections have been held within the time frame provided therein;
that a declaration of unconstitutionality of the challenged provision issued a posteriori, while it cannot affect "exhausted legal relationships," could undermine the functionality of the elected bodies, raising doubts about the legitimacy of the activities carried out by them, in violation of the principle of good administration under Article 97 of the Constitution, also reflected in the legal system of local bodies by Article 145 of the Law of the Sicilian Region of March 15, 1963, no. 16 (Administrative Regulation of local bodies in the Sicilian Region), which attributes to the Region the power to appoint the extraordinary administrative body of the local body in the absence of ordinary bodies;
that, on November 6, 2025, the appellant filed a withdrawal of the appeal, pursuant to the concurring resolution of the Council of Ministers of November 5, 2025, on the grounds that the called elections for the Presidents of the free municipal consortia and the metropolitan councils were held on April 27, 2025, with the resulting installation of the new elected bodies;
that, on November 10, 2025, the Sicilian Region filed an acceptance of the withdrawal signed by the pro tempore President;
that, following the acceptance of the appellant's withdrawal, the hearing of the appeal was set for the Chamber of Council of November 17, 2025, by Presidential Decree of November 12, 2025.
Having considered that the President of the Council of Ministers has withdrawn the appeal indicated in the heading;
that the withdrawal was accepted by the Sicilian Region;
that the withdrawal of the appeal, accepted by the constituted opposing party, results, pursuant to Article 25 of the Supplementary Rules for proceedings before the Constitutional Court, in the termination of the proceedings (most recently, Ordinance no. 92 of 2025).
for these reasons
THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
declares the proceedings terminated.
So decided in Rome, at the seat of the Constitutional Court, Palazzo della Consulta, on November 17, 2025.
Signed:
Giovanni AMOROSO, President
Roberto Nicola CASSINELLI, Rapporteur
Roberto MILANA, Director of the Registry
Filed in the Registry on December 22, 2025