Appeal by former president Sticchi Damiani upheld on procedural grounds

MILAN, June 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With ordinance no. 2254/2025, published on 20 June, the Third Chamber of the Italian Council of State ruled on the precautionary appeal filed by engineer Angelo Sticchi Damiani, challenging the decision issued on 21 February 2025 by the Prime Minister’s Office. That decision, pursuant to Article 65, paragraph 1, final sentence, of the Statute of the Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI), had declared the end of his term as president of the organisation and simultaneously appointed General Tullio Del Sette as acting commissioner.

Unlike the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR), which in its contested ruling had found the former ACI president’s claim to be prima facie unfounded, the Council of State refrained from ruling on the lawfulness of the measure. Instead, it decided not to suspend the contested decision appointing the commissioner.

The appellate court recognised Sticchi Damiani’s interest in serving as president until the end of his term. However, in balancing the competing interests, it deemed the institutional interest of ACI in continuing under the leadership of the already-installed commissioner to outweigh the individual interest. This, it stated, was necessary to ensure administrative continuity and to preserve the organisational structure established with the appointment of the commissioner.

All issues relating to the merits of the case — particularly the lawfulness of the commissioner’s appointment — remain open. “In the substantive phase of the proceedings,” reads a press release, “it will need to be determined whether the removal of a president elected in October 2024 by the Assembly with over 90% of the vote was lawful. This occurred in a legal context in which a 1978 rule prohibiting a third term in office for public entities had been considered inapplicable to ACI due to the elective nature of the position and a subsequent 1999 law, which allows a fourth term for sports federations such as ACI, provided a reinforced majority is met — a threshold that was comfortably reached by Sticchi Damiani.”

The statement goes on to recall that, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, another ACI president had served five terms. In Sticchi Damiani’s case, however, the Prime Minister’s Office for the first time applied the restriction laid out in the 1978 law. “Precisely because of these contradictory interpretations,” the Council of State decided to leave the substantive questions entirely open for the Lazio TAR to assess in the coming months.

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