Premium
President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday that his move to send back to Parliament for review the laws on justice or by referring them to the Constitutional Court he was able to reverse 70 percent of the measures that would have compromised the package.
"Apart from kicking the elephants out of the government meeting, from descending in a red coat among the protesters, I have also done certain things that are provided for in the Constitution and I think I did them quite well. I sent the justice laws back to Parliament, I sent the justice package to the Constitutional Court, I requested an opinion from the Venice Commission. And in the last days I asked the colleagues from the expert department to assess the results. I succeeded in reversing 70 percent of the measures introduced that would have compromised the justice laws, that is 70 percent of the measures introduced by the Social Democratic Party in the laws on the judiciary. Of course, they are not perfect," Iohannis told a debate with journalists and representatives of the civil society held in the grand hall of the Central University Library in Bucharest.
The President argued that without his stepping in the rule of law in Romania "would have broken down".
"I started my campaign of 2014 with the promise that I will strengthen the rule of law in Romania, that I will encourage the fight against corruption and I have kept these promises. I guarantee you - and here you might find me somewhat lacking modesty - without my action the rule of law in Romania would have broken down. It did not, it remained standing. The fight against corruption goes on and, moreover, I corrected the catastrophic external image projected by the PSD governments which engaged in a frontal attack not only on the rule of law and the fight against corruption, but even on democracy in Romania," Iohannis said.
He also expressed his conviction that the laws of justice will be bettered following the parliamentary election.
"At a certain point I couldn't do otherwise but sign them into law because I had run out of constitutional instruments, but things don't stop here and I will make sure that the government resumes these issues after the parliamentary election, when I am sure that we will have a different majority, we will correct what still has to be repaired in the justice laws," he said.
The President explained that he put off the referendum until the moment he considered that it would produce maximum effects.
"I put off the referendum until the time I considered that calling it would produce maximum effects. I think it has. (...) The successive sociological surveys I commissioned have shown me that the best suited moment was to hold it together with the EP election. Let me remind you that a referendum can only be validated if the turnout is high enough. As the surveys showed me - and I also tried to elucidate this - at no previous time would the turnout have been even close to the validation threshold," Klaus Iohannis underscored.
