Premium
President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday that it's "no tragedy" that the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) has invalidated some of the proposals to amend the fundamental law, hammered out after the May 26 referendum, stating that the political parties will simply have to come up with alternative law amendment solutions.
"The Constitutional Court has confirmed the results of the referendum as early as last month, rendering this action the society insistently demands, as fair and fully constitutional. I repeat - the Court has validated the referendum. It's the duty of the parliamentary parties to find the best way to transpose the citizens' option into law. The political parties have to come up with certain variants to amend the Constitution, and some solutions were declared unconstitutional. The opponents of the rule of law and independent justice, who - by no accident - are also fervent supporters of amnesty and pardon for the corrupt, have immediately found the opportunity to try to hijack the meaning of the CCR ruling. Most of the solutions in the drafts submitted to the Court have passed the constitutional test, so that they'll follow their natural course. Contrary to certain claims in the public space, it's no tragedy that some of the Constitution amendment proposals have been invalidated by the Court. The parties will just have to come up with other variants to change the legislation, that should lead to the same result: transposing the people's will into law as soon as possible. The Constitutional Court ruling does not change the reality: after the May 26 vote, Parliament will no longer be able to legislate on amnesty and pardon of corruption offenders, because this would flagrantly violate the people's will, as categorically and democratically expressed at the referendum. This is also a principle established by the CCR," the head of the state said.
He emphasized that it is mandatory that the people's will expressed at the referendum is respected.
"A few days ago, the Constitutional Court determined that there was no need to amend the Constitution in order to ban the amnesty and pardon of corruption offenders. At the referendum called on May 26, I did not ask the citizens whether this ban should be laid out in the fundamental law. The first thing required in order to implement the results of the referendum is the political will to make this happen. The political agreement I have initiated becomes all the more important and necessary exactly because it represents that guarantee based on the commitment and responsibility that the politicians understand that they must respect the voice of the people. It's PSD's political striving to protect the corrupt alone, invalidated by the referendum, that caused the severing of criminal law and of the justice laws, and this is why a political will in favor of the citizens' interests is the one capable of transposing this referendum into law. The citizens' will, categorically and unequivocally expressed by 6.4 million Romanians by the 'Yes' vote given on May 26, must be mandatorily respected. This is unquestionable," Iohannis emphasized.
The President argued that "all the problems the Romanian society has faced in recent years stem from poor lawmaking or, even more seriously, from the intention to legislate not by having the public interest on mind, but groups of interests, as the current parliamentary majority has done".
Klaus Iohannis made these remarks at the ceremony for the signing by representatives of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania and of the parliamentary group of national minorities of the National Political Agreement on consolidating Romania's European course.
