Museum directors: council of state rejects suspension and will rule June 15

In the match between the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the two scholars who filed an appeal against the competition of the twenty “super-directors,” the first point is unfavorable to the Ministry: today the Council of State, through two decrees of the President of the Sixth Section, Luigi Maruotti ( 02304/2017 and 02305/2017), rejected the Ministry’s petition requesting to suspend the ruling of the Regional Administrative Court so as to allow the five directors suspended from their posts to continue working. They will therefore move forward with the interim directors. The Council of State, as stated in the two decrees, rejected the petition “both because it does not seem appropriate to change the current situation (which would lead to an incongruous alternation of the bodies holding public functions),” “and because the delicate issues at stake in the case - which were explored in depth in the contested judgment and the notice of appeal - require due consideration in the ordinary collegial forum, in accordance with the principle of cross-examination.”

The final decision, given the “particular urgency of the issues raised by the appellant Ministry,” has been set for next June 15. The Council of State’s decree also recalls the four grounds of appeal that the Ministry brought against the Tar’s ruling: the fact that the dispute should have been handled by the civil court, the fact that the conduct “via skipe” (sic) of the test of some participants would not have caused injury to the principle of transparency of the acts of the procedure, the failure to recognize the additional grounds of the appeal as inadmissible and, finally, their failure to reject them. Last May 24, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court had upheld the appeal of Giovanna Paolozzi Strozzi and Francesco Sirano against five appointments arising from the 2015 competition for directors of the 20 autonomous museums. Read also our commentary on the case.

Pictured: Palazzo Spada, seat of the Council of State. Credit

Museum directors: council of state rejects suspension and will rule June 15

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