Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna, co-chair of USR PLUS, said on Friday that there was currently a “deadlock” in the ruling coalition, because “UDMR does not want the Section for the Investigation of Crimes in Justice to be abolished.”
“My colleague, the Minister of Justice, Stelian Ion, submitted several ways to abolish the section. In order to be able to reform the Judiciary, it is necessary for all the political forces that matter to endorse this approach. At the moment we have a deadlock in the coalition, we see that our partners from UDMR do not want this and the president’s message expresses the same dissatisfaction that we have – we cannot have a government program approved and supported in Parliament at the time of the Government’s inauguration and then not respect those commitments”, said Barna.
Asked who does not keep his commitments, he replied that the UDMR does not want the abolition of the SIIJ, as agreed in the governing coalition. “UDMR, in reality, only wants to move the Special Section to the General Prosecutor’s Office, not to abolish it, as we agreed in the coalition,” the USR PLUS leader added.
On Wednesday, President Klaus Iohannis criticized the Minister of Justice Stelian Ion (USR) and reproached him for the delay in amending the justice laws and the failure of the discussions regarding the abolition of the SIIJ.
Prime Minister Florin Cîțu, too has taken the same stance as Klaus Iohannis, claiming that he agrees with the President “almost completely” that the responsibility for the coalition blockade related to justice laws and the abolition of the Special Section belongs to the Minister of Justice, Stelian Ion.
Slammed by the head of state, Justice Minister Stelian Ion replied that both the final abolition of the SIIJ and the amendment of justice laws would had already been accomplished if all coalition partners had respected the ruling program and would have valued the opinions of international institutions. At the same time, the JusMin asked president Iohannis “to get involved” in overcoming this deadlock: “USR PLUS will not accept cosmetics of the legislation“, he argued.