Dragnea:JusMin doesn't have to wait for justice package amendment to make new appointment at DNA helm

Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader doesn't have to wait for the amendment of the justice package, but must start procedures for the appointment of a new anticorruption head, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea said on Monday. 

"It will be the decision of the Justice Minister, I don't see why he should wait until the new laws come in force. It's the same procedure, nothing has changed. (...) I don't know what the Minister will do, if he asks, I'll tell him my opinion - I don't think he should wait for the amendment of the justice package, this is a vacancy, he has the power to make a proposal, so I think he'll have to start procedures," Dragnea told a press conference. 

Asked whether Laura Codruta Kovesi's removal from office as DNA Chief Prosecutor has toppled the parallel state Dragnea replied: "No, regrettably we are talking here of an octopus that reaches a lot farther. I just express hope - and it's not just me, but enormously many Romanians - that we get to live that moment when a part of Romanian prosecutors act in good faith, seeking to uncover truth and by observing the law, and that they understand exactly the independence no one from the political class has laid a finger on. Quite the opposite, their independence was harmed by certain actions, gestures, even by pressure. And it would be good if, when carrying out investigations, they kept two major goals in mind - finding the truth and respecting fundamental rights and freedoms, not acting at political orders," said the PSD leader. 

He went on to say there is no guarantee that the next DNA Chief Prosecutor doesn't come from the parallel state. 

"There's no guarantee at all. Just the discussion about who is heading the DNA is not enough and is misleading. This is a systemic problem, a flow of approach. After all, as far as I see it, this is a state where law should govern, to give each Romanian citizen higher hope that nothing happens to them if they are innocent. This is one of the big issues - terror, uncertainty. [A prerequisite should be] for the new laws to come into force. Questions further arise, there's been this sacking, but how about those who signed the protocols, those who put them into practice, how about those who used them?" added the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.