USR's Barna voices solidarity with President Iohannis over fine sentence

Chairman of the Save Romania Union (USR) Dan Barna voiced solidarity with President Klaus Iohannis, after the discrimination watchdog fined the head of the state; Barna said he would be glad if he too were handed down a fine by the National Council against Discrimination (CNCD) for using the syntagm "convicts". 

"I stand in solidarity with the President and if I were fined tomorrow, I would be pleased with this. (...) In a normal country, a President is sentenced when he acknowledges an objective fact? In a normal country a convicted person who receives a judge's stigma steps back. This is what our campaign 'No Convicts in Public Offices' is all about. Let them no longer represent the state in the period between the conviction's handing down and rehabilitation. What message do we convey to the youth? That in our country it's OK to be a convict, that it's OK to be a thief, embezzle public money and further steer the country," Barna told private TV broadcaster Digi 24 when the show moderator remarked that USR has embedded the syntagm "convict" in its campaign. 

The USR leader also underscored that justice has become the hot subject of debate in Romania, upstaging other subjects. 

"For two years now justice has been a major issue in Romania, all we do day-in, day-out is discuss about justice. Highways, hospitals, hospital-acquired infections have no longer been in the spotlight for a long time. And all this happens because convicted people are at the helm of the country and we are served the message that it is okay for them to be there. This is outrageous. And when the President explicitly says that these are 'convicts ...' - because Liviu Dragnea is a convict (...) - when he explicitly states this, which is a broadly known fact, the sentence hits the one who proclaims it, the one who cries out there is a gang-rape going on in the public square. This is outrageous. The solution is, in fact, the core element of our campaign 'No Convicts in Public Offices'," Dan Barna said. 

The steering board of the National Council against Discrimination on Wednesday adopted a decision to fine President Klaus Iohannis 2,000 lei for using the term "convicts" in an address this February at a press conference to describe politicians who were attempting to discredit the anti-corruption agency. 

The Presidential Administration announced that President Klaus Iohannis will challenge the CNCD decision in the competent court.