Disagreement over the mandatory Covid certificate
It is increasingly unlikely that in Romania the COVID certificate will become mandatory at work
Bogdan Matei, 24.12.2021, 01:50
Already introduced in some countries, including in the European Union, the obligation to have a so-called green COVID certificate in order to be allowed to go to work has triggered vehement political disputes in Romania. The media in Bucharest say that there are little chances that a new law on the said certificate will appear by the end of the year and even less for such a certificate to become mandatory at work. The leaders of the PSD-PNL-UDMR governing coalition had another meeting on Thursday on this topic, but to no avail. Discussions are set to resume next week, after Christmas.
According to some political sources, the idea of giving up the obligation to have a COVID certificate at work would belong to President Klaus Iohannis. The leaders of the coalition, the Liberal Florin Cîţu and the Social Democrat Marcel Ciolacu, are now discussing that such a law that conditions work on a certificate might be declared unconstitutional.
On the other hand, the opposition USR says that without a mandatory certificate at work, a law on this matter is devoid of content.In an open letter to President Iohannis, former USR Health Ministers Ioana Mihail and Vlad Voiculescu say the mandatory certificate is vital to fighting infections and supporting the vaccination campaign.
Politicians’ hesitations come after about a hundred people protesting against the possible introduction of the mandatory COVID certificate at work stormed the courtyard of the Bucharest Parliament on Tuesday. The protest, which nobody has claimed, was intensely popularised the night before by the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and gathered, according to the authorities, about 1,500 people, who disrupted road traffic in the area.
Numerous anti-vaccination groups, very visible and vocal in the public space, joined the AUR parliamentarians who accused the violation of some fundamental rights.The Minister of Interior, the Liberal Lucian Bode, has stated that there was no risk the protesters would enter the Parliament building, guarded by 300 gendarmes, whom he ordered not to use force. Bode also claims that the AUR parliamentarians brought people inside in their cars and later urged those who were protesting outside to enter as well.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, over 1.8 million cases of infection with the new coronavirus have been registered in Romania, and almost 60,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died.In other words, experts say that Romania has lost, in less than two years, the population of an average city. Against the background of the anti-vaccine psychosis maintained by some media, politicians and other public figures, the country has the second lowest immunisation rate among the 27 members of the European Union, after Bulgaria. (MI)
