According to the Ministry of the Interior, the Cartabia Reform allows all individuals for whom a plea-bargaining sentence of up to two years has been pronounced to no longer incur a situation of ineligibility, thus being able to run in the next elections if the additional penalties have not been applied, thus overcoming the forbidding provision of the Severino Law.
The Cartabia Reform effectively introduced a general rule into the Criminal Procedure Code: if accessory penalties are not applied, the provisions of laws other than criminal laws that equate plea-bargaining with conviction do not take effect.
The Ministry of the Interior, comforted by an opinion of the Attorney General’s Office, held that the Severino Law’s provisions on restriction to candidacy are not criminal in nature and, therefore, no longer take effect today.
The opinion seems to be inclined to recognize a retroactive value of the effects of the reform, so that individuals who were so far in a situation of ineligibility as a result of plea-bargaining can run for elections.
However, the position of the Ministry of the Interior is not indisputable and the candidate could incur into judicial controversies.