Tariceanu on revoking DNA head: She seriously breaches Constitution; President must make decision

Senate's President Calin Popescu-Tariceanu considers that National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA)'s chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi has seriously breached the Constitution, but that revoking her depends on how President Klaus Iohannis "understands" to exercise his mandate.

"The President must oversee the observance of the Constitution. Mrs Kovesi has seriously breached the Constitution, that is why I ask myself how the President will handle [the situation], but I am not his advisor, and I do not want to intervene in this matter, the President has to make the decision and then assume the consequences of the decision," Tariceanu said on Tuesday at private TV broadcaster Antena 3.

Asked what he thinks will happen if President Iohannis decides to reject the minister of justice's request in the case of the DNA's chief prosecutor, Tariceanu replied that the Constitutional Court would be reached.

"I think the Constitutional Court will be reached, but if we analyze things as they are from a constitutional point of view, the conflict seems rather to be one between the Government and the President, because the report and the request for revocation were made by the minister of justice, hence he involves the Government, in relation to the President. The Constitution surely gives the speakers of the two Chambers the right to notify on inter-institutional conflicts, but I think that in this situation things are very clear. It would be logical for the minister of justice and, by translation, the Prime Minister to be the one notifying in this case," Tariceanu pointed out.