Romanian President discusses with magistrates
President Nicușor Dan met with magistrates to discuss irregularities in the justice system.
Leyla Cheamil, 23.12.2025, 14:00
The Romanian head of state, Nicușor Dan, discussed, in Bucharest, with several magistrates the problems facing the justice system, after the recent presentation of some dysfunctions in a journalistic documentary. The investigation shows, among other things, that those tried in major corruption cases and found guilty in the first instance were definitively acquitted, after the trials lasted several years. Most of the magistrates present at the meeting with the president called for the urgent change of the justice laws, because, they say, the legislative amendments of 2022 would have allowed the creation of an oligarchic system that would have favored groups of interests. They also accused interference by the heads of courts and prosecutors’ offices and disciplinary investigations started without real reasons.
The consultations began with a group of 11 former or current magistrates, who agreed to speak publicly about the irregularities in the judiciary, as they see them recently reported in the documentary. After the meeting, the president continued discussions with another 40 magistrates, who requested the meeting to be private. Among the issues raised by the magistrates were the need for the urgent amendment of the justice laws adopted in 2022, the existence of what they called an oligarchic system at the top of the system, especially at the High Court of Cassation and Justice and the Superior Council of Magistracy, and the close relationship of some magistrates with political actors.
Other irregularities reported concern abuses by the Judicial Inspection against inconvenient magistrates, the way in which secondments and delegations are made, as well as the pressure exerted by the National Anticorruption Directorate leadership on some prosecutors. Prosecutor Laura Deriuş confirmed the problems revealed in the journalistic documentary regarding the change of judicial panels in the corruption case of a former sector mayor of Bucharest, and also the way in which those in the Anticorruption Directorate leadership ‘control’ the activity of prosecutors.
In turn, Prosecutor Bogdan Pîrlog said that ‘gangs from within the system have joined hands with gangs from outside the system’ and have managed to bring the judicial system ‘to a state of clinical death’. He explained how a majority established at the level of the Judges’ Section of the Superior Council of Magistracy has managed to control the entire judicial system and there are serious irregularities in the way cases are distributed in the courts. Judge Dragoş Călin stated that the problems in the judiciary derive from the laws that were adopted in 2022, and the only solution to remedy this situation is their rapid amendment in Parliament. At the end of the first round of consultations, President Nicuşor Dan announced that it was a useful debate, so that the general public could understand the working conditions of magistrates. He added that the discussions would continue. (LS)
