We need a
\njustice referendum and it will be held on May 26th, jointly with the
\nEuropean Parliament elections, Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis said at the
\nend of the consultations he had with the parliamentary parties. The topics of
\nthe referendum are related to forbidding amnesty and pardon of corruption offences
\nand forbidding the government to pass emergency decrees related to criminal
\noffences, convictions and judicial organization. Consultations were called
\namidst the high number of legislative changes in the field of the judiciary
\npromoted by the ruling coalition, which have sparked controversy and triggered criticism
\nfrom our country’s European partners. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Held over the course of two days, the
\nconsultations brought little surprise. The first to meet with the president
\nwere the opposition parties: the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union
\nand the People’s Movement Party, as well as the Democratic Union of Ethnic
\nHungarians and the group of ethnic minorities other than Hungarian, which all
\nembraced the idea of organizing a referendum. It is vital for Romania that its
\ncitizens should decide that they will no
\nlonger put up with the ruling coalition’s systematic assaults on the independence
\nof the judiciary and on the citizens’ rights and liberties, the Liberal leader
\nLudovic Orban said. On the second day of the consultations, the only group to
\nsend a delegation was the main partner in the ruling coalition, the Social-Democratic Party, which President Klaus
\nIohannis holds accountable for the predicament of Romania’s judiciary:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Klaus Iohannis: Since the beginning of their tenure, the Social-Democrats have mounted
\na relentless assault on the judiciary. The Social-Democratic Party is the sole
\nresponsible for the public concern over the Romanian justice system. Romanians
\nare worried, they fear the Social-Democrats will bend the Romanian judiciary to
\ntheir political will. And since citizens must respond to this assault, I chose
\nto organize the May 26 referendum. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nSocial-Democrats’ representative at the consultations, Eugen Nicolicea, who is
\nalso the Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies, has announced that
\nParliament will vote in favor of the president’s request to hold an advisory
\nreferendum, which will not produce legal
\neffects. The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the junior partners in the
\nruling coalition, refused to take part in consultations, accusing the president
\nof using the referendum as a pretext to start the presidential election
\ncampaign earlier. On March 26th, the president consulted with
\nrepresentatives of civil society, and on March 27th Klaus Iohannis
\nmet with representatives of judges and magistrates’ associations to discuss the
\ncurrent situation of the judiciary.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, President Klaus Iohannis held consultations with the parliamentary parties over the justice referendum scheduled for May 26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":80334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39631,29871,29972],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-81455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-26-may","tag-justice","tag-referendum"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n