Romania’s president Nicusor Dan, in an interview for Europa FM on April 16, announced that “we are at the beginning of a political crisis” but stressed that the outcome, which he pledged not to influence, can only be shaped by the pro-European parties. The red line is nominating a prime minister for a would-be coalition formed by the Social Democrats (PSD) with the opposition party AUR, which president Dan said would never cross.
President Dan placed himself in the neutral zone, saying that he doesn’t want to be on one side or another in the conflict between Social Democrats and prime minister Ilie Bolojan – backed by the Liberal Party (PNL) and the reformist party USR. He implied that both sides are responsible for the emerging political crisis.
Faced with the reality that it is PSD that organises an internal referendum for breaking the coalition agreement it signed less than a year ago, president Dan argued that “the Social Democrats would reply about the unfriendly behaviour of PM Bolojan.”
President Dan avoided speaking about the essence of the conflict between the ruling parties, about the responsibility for the economic crisis faced by the country, or about the need to strengthen anticorruption. Instead, he stressed that the public debate should be geopolitical, about “being pro-western versus being anti-western,” along the narrative developed by the former PSD-PNL alliance before the 2024 elections to gain another term.
The interview touched on other key topics such as the appointment of controversial head prosecutors (whom president Dan defended once again), the expected appointment of intelligence services heads (confirmed by president Dan for this year), the election cancellation dossier (with the final report promised by president Dan within a month) and the state on justice (where president Dan confirmed a survey among magistrates within a month while toning down previous comments about the implications of the survey).
On the head prosecutors’ appointment, president Dan rejected the rather well-founded allegations against new general prosecutor Cristina Chiriac – who reportedly failed to refer, to relevant prosecution office, evidences about repeated rapes of clergy against pupils of a theological seminary she discovered during a blackmail case (against the alleged rapist – later convicted for the rape after the evidences allegedly ignored by Chiriac were brought to light by investigative journalists).
“What she saw was a free-consensual [sexual] act not involving minors,” president Dan argued. Once again, president Dan said he fully trusts Cristina Chiriac, who “has no morality issue.”
About the newly appointed deputy head prosecutors Marius Voineag and Alex Folorenta, who previously served as head prosecutors (anticorruption and general, respectively), formerly criticised by president Dan during the electoral campaign for their weak performance, the president argued that the deputy head positions are not important (“they don’t matter”) and that he appointed them because “they applied” and “I had no reason to refuse them.”
Regarding the state of justice, president Dan played down the investigative work of journalists about the “captured justice” and even his first statements in December about the need for immediate action. “It includes a series of accusations that need to be proven,” president Dan stated, speaking about the detailed documentary published by the Recorder investigative platform at the beginning of December, including testimonies of magistrates and a thorough description of how the captured justice functions.
Along the same sceptical note, president Dan said he tends to believe that the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) has been at the origin of abuses during the term of its former head, Laura Codruta Kovesi.
iulian@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)
Leave a Reply