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Protests against controversial judicial reform took place in Bucharest a few months ago.
Bucharest The Romanian Chamber of Deputies adopted a short-term amendment to the criminal law, which benefits politicians who are suspicious of corruption. President Klaus Iohannis called the act "outright outrageous" and announced that he was trying to keep this law out of force.
The hastily adopted changes date back to an initiative of the PSD (Social Democrats) and ALDE (Liberals) parties.
In the future, abuses of power should only be punishable if they provide a personal benefit to the perpetrator or his / her family. According to critics, this opens the door to favor a friend's friend. Currently, one can expect to be acquitted 215 in case of public service abuse, just because of the new law, if it were to enter into force, the anti-corruption unit warned the prosecutor, DNA. In addition, the maximum penalty for abuse of power has been reduced from two years to five years.
President Klaus Iohannis wants to intervene immediately with the Constitutional Court to prevent the entry into force of the law. However, the constitutional court is mostly filled with pro-government judges.
Voting in parliament represents a "dictatorship of the majority" that "profoundly undermines democracy," said Johannis. PSD had this bill "in record time" pbaded by parliament, there was only "a moderate debate" and they had the arguments of the opposition "rolled up". The changes in the criminal law were partly useless, partly "poisonous", the head of state was furious
. The recently adopted amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure also seeks to challenge Iohannis before the Constitutional Court. This change in law significantly limits the power of prosecutors and the use of evidence.
In Romania, a law comes into force only with the signature of the head of state. The President may intervene before the signature of the Constitutional Court or refer once the adopted law for reconsideration to Parliament.
The day before, the Senate (upper house) had already approved the project, which had been severely criticized by several EU states, the Council of Europe and the experts. In the House of Representatives, the draft was adopted by 167 votes. It's just two more votes than necessary. There were 97 votes against and 19 abstentions. The final vote, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed to very short term.
PES leader Liviu Dragnea, recently sentenced to three and a half years in prison for instigating abuse of power, has recently been suspended from prosecution. His procedure did not go through all kinds of cases and he would take the most favorable regulation for him.
In the case of Dragnea, however, the recipient was not himself personally, but his PSD party, including two of his employees were paid by the youth office, where they were fictitious. Dragnea is not allowed to become himself prime minister due to a 2016 presidential election for election manipulation, but controls the government.
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