President Klaus Iohannis has announced Tuesday evening, during a briefing at Cotroceni Palace, that he has signed the decrees regarding General Florian Coldea on releasing him from office and placing him on reserve.
The head of state took the opportunity to say it is a good thing there is talk about the intelligence services and things need to be sorted out. “Two red lines should be drawn in regard to the relation between the intelligence services and politicians, as well as between politicians and the intelligence services,” Iohannis said.
The President stressed these issues should be cleared out and that parliament would have to have talks on such issues.
“In order to have intelligence services doing their job and politicians do their job, it is important to have two red lines. One – the way the intelligence services are related to politics and politicians. Is it good that intelligence services mend into politics? It should be clarified. I believe it’s not good for the intelligence services to mend into politics. The second red line should define how much the politicians can get involved into the intelligence services activity. What about politicizing the intelligence services? It’s not good either. If we want powerful intelligence services and satisfied politicians with the relationship with the intelligence services, a parliamentary effective, efficient and transparent control is needed,” the President said.
Referring to the new parliamentary majority, President Iohannis said: “It’s not possible that party policy defines the way parliamentary control is conducted over the intelligence services. Negotiations between power and opposition are needed. Both should get involved in the parliamentary committees. After all, all Romanians want well managed intelligence services that guarantee the national security”.
Last but not least, the head of state referred to the issue of amnesty and pardon of criminal offences, wondering if the fresh parliamentary majority is mature enough not to promote them.
“The maturity of the fresh parliamentary majority will be revealed by the way it acts in regard to the legal framework in the field of security and justice, mainly regarding a legislative approach such as amnesty and pardon. (…) What kind of majority we’ll have? We don’t know yet. I wish for a mature majority,” President Iohannis said.