PM Orban on parliamentary elections: December 6 is the constitutional and lawful data

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Thursday said that, from the government's point of view, December 6 is "the constitutional and lawful date" for the organisation of the parliamentary elections, and "every extra day with the current Parliament still in office is a lost day for Romania."

"Every day that this Parliament remains in office, after the date that we set for the elections, is a lost day for Romania, for the PSD (Social Democratic Party) hurts Romania almost every day of parliamentary activity. No further than last week they adopted a series of laws, they granted increases to a lot of employees in the public sector - that of 15 per cent, extra benefits for special conditions - they generalized that, they established how the social reference index should increase and they related the minimum salary to the social reference index three years from now. And I'm not talking about all the other laws that practically lead Romania to insolvency. Such irresponsibility on the part of parliamentary groups dominated by PSD, as manifested in the last three months, has never been seen before," Orban told Digi24 private television broadcaster.

According to him, "the issue of elections is related to the way they are organised."

He added that the decision of the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) on the issue seemed "abracadabrant" and "a flagrant violation of the Constitution by the body that must be the guardian of it."

"We need to turn things around. This situation is no longer tolerable. The composition of the CCR needs to be changed, the politruks must be removed from there, only the magistrates with careers must enter there. (...) Not to say that many of the decisions there are against the fundamental interests of Romania. I give as an example only the decision to leave the health authorities and the Government without any means at hand to stop the spread of the virus, which caused the most spectacular increase in the number of cases. (...) I cannot understand such a decision. We, the government, have challenged with the CCR the law by which the Parliament, a parliamentary majority, has arrogated its right to set the date of the elections. (...) But what happens if a parliamentary majority does not put on the agenda a bill on setting the date of the election? Because no one will take responsibility. What is the interest of an MP in a majority? To extend his term as long as possible, especially if he will no longer be on the list for the next the parliamentary elections," Orban said.

According to the head of the Executive, "the orders are given by Florin Iordache and others to Valer Dorneanu and the politically appointed judges, who make decision after decision that no longer have anything to do with the Romanian Constitution and democracy."

"This toxic majority, which is the result of the 2016 elections, with Dragnea [Liviu Dragnea - former leader of PSD} telling everybody how the salaries, pensions and so on will increase, everything, in fact, this toxic majority destroys Romania, for it behaves like an internal enemy. We no longer need enemies from outside, because we have our own enemy right here in the country," said Ludovic Orban.