Former PM Viorica Dancila, now running for Presidency on PSD behalf has told the debate she convened on Tuesday on the same hours as her contender Klaus Io hannis that she had never taken judiciary by assault, but she had actually “set” things right, when the Justice Ministers tried to intervene in the justice system.
“I won’t take responsibility for this. Because you have never seen Prime Minister Dancila taking justice by assault. I have never taken justice by assault. You should address this question to President Iohannis. I never intervened in the justice system. I even corrected things when the Minister of Justice tried to intervene in the justice system. I consider that politics and justice should be two separate things. Justice must be done by magistrates. The President should have neither intervened in the justice system” said Dancila, when asked if she took responsibility for “PSD’s assault of justice.”
As for her stance on the amendments to the Criminal Code, Dancila said PSD is a democratic party and there is no “dictatorship” inside the PSD, meaning that the decisions are made by the statutory forum. “You shouldn’t ask me about what happened in Parliament. I am not a member of Parliament,” she said.
Also confronted with the fact that she had endorsed Ordinance 13 in 2017, Dancila said that, as far as she knew, there were no legal issues related to that Ordinance. “I don’t think that an Ordinance like that would be timely now. We had a referendum saying the Government can no longer issue emergency ordinances in the justice field,” she claimed.
When told she sent a letter as MEP to defend the GEO 13, Dancila argued she had to explain what was the situation in the country.
“I was not the PM back then, I was a MEP. I had to explain what happened, because there were so many attacks from Monica Macovei, Cristian Preda who presented an image of the country that wasn’t honourable for them to present. (…) Regardless of what happens in the country, we shouldn’t take all these problems outside,” said Dancila.
She also added that the former PSD chairman Liviu Dragnea had done good things, such as the ruling programme and winning the 2016 elections, and also bad things, for which he is paying now as he is in prison.
On the other hand, the PSD candidate has slammed her contender, the incumbent President Iohannis for many things, for not meeting the Diaspora, for refusing a face-to-face debate with her, for blocking laws, for accepting the abuses in justice and for having “his own legal problems”, accusing him that this might be the reason for which the President has not given up his immunity yet.
As for what she will do if becoming the President, Viorica Dancila said that among her priorities if she is elected will be having a referendum on immunity, joining Schengen, obtaining the visa waiver for the United States of America, and that the first visit she will pay abroad as head of state will be to the Republic of Moldova.
Dancila maintains stance on relocating Romanian Embassy to Jerusalem
Also questioned on the controversial stance to move Romania’s Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Dancila replied that she maintains her opinion that moving the Romanian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be the right thing to do, though mentioning she would ask for the opinion of the relevant institutions before taking this decision, if she became President.
“I said that I agreed with moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to the legislation in force and in compliance with the other political forces. However, I would make an analysis first and ask for the opinion of all relevant institutions, but my opinion is that – and I reiterate now what I said a while ago – our strategic partner, which provides our security, the US, moved its embassy, I believe that we too can have the same initiative and move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I believe that each state has this option of establishing its own Capital City,” said Dancila, when asked if, as a President, she would sign a memorandum on the movement of the Romanian Embassy to Jerusalem.
She added that she will ask again for the opinion of the relevant institutions about this topic.
“I had a memorandum through which I asked for the opinion of the ministries, of all institutions. But that was some time ago, so it would be normal to see what is the situation at the respective time, which is why I guarantee that I won’t break any legal provisions and I will observe the law regarding this measure too, but I will have the same approach,” said Dancila.
New blunders
Asked about the Romanians in Diaspora, Dancila has criticised Klaus Iohannis:
„Iohannis has had not even one visit to Romanians in Diaspora. Even if he went to countries where many Romanians are living, he has never met THESE ones”.
At the same time, requested to answer in English to an question addressed in English by a reporter, the former PM, seldom criticised for not knowing English although she had been MEP 9 years, retorted that “not even German chancellor Angela Merkel speaks in English during her meetings, but only in German”. “Let’s not deride a serious debate. I think we have the duty to be proud of our language in Romania”, she added.
Another journalist asked Dancila to say what is the surface area of a circle, considering she claimed she is good at mathematics and she had also given private lessons on maths.
“Radius square root“, the former PM replied.
“It is pi times the radius’s square root,” the journalist corrected her.
“Ok, pi times the radius’s square root. I gave private lessons on maths and believe me, if you have some spare time, you could join me and we shall see who knows maths better. I am engineer, believe me, all engineers in Romania study mathematics till the third academic year. I went to college for five years, graduated with GPA 9. If you want us to talk about maths I will be at your disposal after the press conference,” Dancila said annoyed.