Ruling Party Asked President Why He Didn't Take A Stance Against Secret Protocols

The document, obtained by MEDIAFAX, mostly contains questions on the president’s stance regarding the protocols, despite the fact that the talks were summoned on the subject of the country’s ongoing judicial overhaul.

Among the seven questions, the social-democrats asked Iohannis why he didn’t use his constitutional powers to intervene in the matter of the protocols and what stance he currently has towards the signatories of said protocols.

Social-democrat leaders also asked the president why he didn’t intervene when a number of magistrates and judges’ associations “accused serious pressures from anticorruption prosecutors” in cases the latter were involved in.

On the subject of the judicial overhaul, the party inquired on why the talks were summoned after judicial bills were passed by the Parliament instead of before, and why the president made multiple challenges to the Constitutional Court against all judicial bills on a principle which had already been rejected by the court, claiming that it “obstructed the Parliament’s process of lawmaking”.

The Social Democrat Party delegation also presented President Iohannis a document containing ten principles they consider vital for judicial independence. according to chairman Liviu Dragnea.

In a press statement immediately following the talks, Dragnea presented the list of principles, but declined to talk about the questions the delegation addressed to the head of state, stating that he wants to let President Iohannis analyze them.

Among the list of principles, the social democrats requested “stopping judicial abuses against citizens and reverting their effects”, liability for magistrates who err in office either due to malevolence or serious negligence and removing “magistrates who collaborated with intelligence agencies”.

The Romanian President decided to hold the talks after the Council of Europe’s advisory body, the Venice Commission, criticized the ongoing judicial reform pushed by the PSD-ALDE coalition in two separate reviews, stating that the proposed bills could weaken the country’s fight against corruption and endanger judicial independence. All parliamentary groups confirmed that they will send representatives to the talks.

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