President Klaus Iohannis announced on Monday he will ask Parliament for a new consultation that will broaden the scope of the referendum due to take place on 26 May.
"I will ask Parliament a new consultation that aims to broaden the scope of the referendum in order to make it more efficient and more powerful," the president said at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.
"We realize that the initial consultation we carried out, the consultation of Parliament, only focused on part of the big issues that PSD [Social Democratic Party, major at rule, ed.n.] is causing. I have decided to conduct a re-consultation of Parliament, a new consultation of Romania's Parliament for the broadening of the referendum's scope. I will address the Romanian Parliament a new consultation that extends the scope of the referendum in order to make it more efficient and more powerful. Referendum on 26 May. I warn the Romanian Government not to issue emergency ordinances in these areas, Justice, Criminal Policies, until the people voices its opinion, until we know the sovereign will of the Romanians," the president said at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.
He argued that emergency ordinances are an issue of the PSD governing.
"A huge issue has arisen during the PSD governments and, in the meantime, we know what PSD wants and how it works. This immense problem in the way PSD is governing are the emergency ordinances, which are usually issued in a totally non-transparent manner, without prior consultations, without any clarity as to why emergency ordinances need to be given and this is happening in highly sensitive areas. PSD governs by emergency ordinances in the area of Justice, of the criminal policy of the Romanian state and this cannot be tolerated any longer," said Iohannis.
The president stressed that it is mandatory to regulate the use of emergency ordinances.
"Opportunities must be introduced to challenge these ordinances with the CCR [Constitutional Court of Romania, ed.n.]," added the president.
He reaffirmed that PSD governing has failed and stressed that the issue of amnesty and pardon must be clarified.
"We will have a referendum on May 26. It is now known that the PSD government has failed. The highly promised hospitals, especially regional hospitals, do not exist any longer, not even on paper, the motorways are lost along corridors and the relevant drawers, the economy suffers from PSD's experiments, but the worst is that the PSD assault on Justice is still underway, a steady, continuous assault that began with Ordinance 13, which took hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Romanians to the street. Ordinance 13, through which the Social Democrats wanted to escape, in one shot, from justice, to bleach their case files, wanted back then that amnesty and pardon be granted. Not only wasn't the subject abandoned by PSD but it is still kept and the Social Democrats still want amnesty and pardon for the corrupt. This topic needs clarifying. I cannot accept amnesty and pardon for the corrupt," said Klaus Iohannis.
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