PSD's leading body decides to continue support for embattled national party leader

The National Executive Committee (CExN) of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) decided on Friday's meeting to continue support for the party's national leader Liviu Dragnea in all the political positions he is holding: national leader and speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.

"The PSD's CExN decided to support the PSD chairman, Liviu Dragnea, in all his political positions, in the leadership of the party and in the leadership of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania's Parliament," reads an official document adopted at the end of a meeting that lasted for four hours in Dragnea's office at the Chamber of Deputies.

The PSD leadership also decided to support the government led by Prime Minister Viorica Dancila to continue and accelerate the implementation of measures in the governance programme and to take "all legal and constitutional steps" to finalise and accelerate procedures for adopting amendments to the justice legislation and criminal codes to bring them in line with the decisions of the Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights, European directives and in line with the standards in this area of the Venice Commission.

A forceful use all legal and parliamentary mechanisms and procedures for denouncing the abuses of justice based on unlawful secret protocols; a determined use of all legal channels to strengthen the authority of the Constitutional Court, so that the final and binding ruling of this court will be observed and enforced by all the authorities of the Romanian state are other decisions taken by the CExN, according to the official document.

CExN's arguments include the fact that Dragnea is the political guarantor of the governing programme being fully implemented and the main stability factor of the government and the parliamentary majority, as well as respect for the presumption of innocence and the provisions in this area from the relevant European directives, the ECHR and the Constitutional Court rulings, all of which state this principle as one of the fundamental values of democracy and the rule of law.