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Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said on Monday that he was "stupefied" to see that the same people who slammed the authorities for imposing fines during the state of emergency are now unhappy that no sanctions have been applied after the start of the state of alert.
"Following the adoption of this government decision, based on the law, we now have all the necessary legal instruments at hand, fines included. I can't help remarking as a side note that I was stupefied to see that people who slammed us for having handed down fines are now bashing us for the absence of fines. That's some flip-flopping. The fines are a tool by which those who don't obey the law can be determined to behave correctly. Because a correct behavior by each citizen contributes to public health and protects the people who act correctly, who respect the law and the rules, from the risk of infection. From my point of view, as long as it's obvious that this virus poses a major risk, particularly for people with vulnerabilities or underlying diseases, including for their life, any behavior that is not correct and that can lead to the infection of our fellow citizens must be penalized," Orban said at the beginning of the government's meeting.
He stressed that sanctioning undisciplined behavior is normal and reasonable, because Romania is governed by "democracy, not by anarchy," and democracy works for the benefit of those who abide by the law and the rules.
Orban also pointed out that 98 percent of the Romanians are law-abiding citizens who contribute to keeping the epidemic under control and that the better the spread of the virus is kept under control, the higher the chance to return to normalcy.
