USR's Barna about Caracal case: We call on extraordinary session on legislative measures

Chairman of the Save Romania Union (USR) Dan Barna said Monday that the Romanian state is in functional bankruptcy and has called for an extraordinary parliamentary session to be convened for legislative measures so that situations such as the Caracal tragedy be avoided. 

"This tragedy is absurd and outrageous and disgraceful for the Romanian state because we are not talking about an unfortunate accident, we are talking about a henious crime that the Romanian state, the public system, failed to prevent, although there were all the premises and there were the elements that would have made possible a timely intervention that could have saved Alexandra's life. Nothing could bring this life back, but this tragedy shows that we cannot go on like this. This tragedy shows that the Romanian state is currently in functional bankruptcy, currently, the Romanian state can no longer provide the minimum service that people expect from them - the safety of the citizens," Barna told a press conference. 

He said that what happened at Caracal is not an exceptional situation, noting that there are "police stations full of deputy police chiefs, politically appointed, many of them with no education." 

"Beyond the natural public statements there is no explicit responsibility taking either from the Presidency or the Government on what the coordination and the measures to be further taken mean. That is why we will call on the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies an extraordinary session so that Parliament can urgently take the measures (...) and we can somehow settle into the normality that is fundamentally necessary," Barna pointed out. 

He said that simple dismissals are not enough for what happened in Caracal. In his view, the government must leave. 

Another proposal of the USR is that the appointment to leadership positions be done on merit-based criteria, on a competition basis, and the interim heads of the police be immediately stopped. 

USR also wants to improve the quality of education by reforming the Police Academy, by consulting European experts and continuous professional training for police officers, as well as their regular assessment by an independent body. 

The USR also proposes the urgent abrogation of OUG 51/2019, which removed the county road passenger transport, previously considered public service under the county budgets, that the county transport should re-enter the public transport area, and be settled for students during the holidays included.