Nicolae Moga has sworn in as Interior minister last Wednesday, July 24. It is the shortest term of an Interior minister in this office.
In a press statement on Sunday, President Iohannis rejected the Government’s “petty political approach“ on the Caracal case, while urging the Government to think if maybe it is one who is the moral author of this tragedy and to assume responsibility.
The CSAT sitting scheduled to start today at 13:00 to tackle the issue of the budget rectification is expected to also discuss the intervention in the Caracal case as a matter of urgency. Klaus Iohannis announced he would ask CSAT, the prime minister and Justice and Interior ministers to fund concrete solutions in this case.
STS director resigned over this case on Monday.
PM sends control body to probe into the Interior ministry’s ‘lack of professionalism
Shortly after the Interior minister announced his resignation, PM Viorica Dăncilă said she had sent her Control Body to the Interior Ministry to probe the way policemen had intervened in the Caracal murder case. The premier says that, by analysing the Interior Ministry’s report, she determined the lack of professionalism and of responsibility of those who managed the case.
PM Dăncilă announced she would propose two “clear priorities” in the CSAT sitting, while denouncing the “disparate” and “partial truth” information in the Caracal case.
“I will propose a dedicated command led by Raed Arafat (state secretary on emergency situations), as the only contact and management headquarters that will centralise the information of the investigation, which will draft the necessary analyses and reports and which will deliver official information about this case. Official reports will be made public every 6 hours”, the head of the Executive said.
The premier also asked for the resignation of all police agents and officers who had poorly managed the victim’s 112 call.
“I also saw in the MAI report that people with an inhuman approach have been involved in managing the case. Those people were not only lacking professionalism, but also a responsibility for a human life. Such a side-slip is unacceptable, so I urgently ask the immediate dismissal of all those who were part of the bad management of the 112 call.
I sent the Prime Minister’s Control Body for further checks and I will have a report in maximum one week. If we talk about a human error that has negatively affected the girl’s rescue mission, the judiciary bodies must act. Those to blame must deserve the full rigor of the law. I want to see justice done all the way“, Dăncilă said.
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Former president Traian Băsescu (PMP) said a real reform of the Interior Ministry is need after the crimes in Caracal. The system must be re-organized and all the employees checked and many of them must be sacked, he argued. If PSD does not assume this “clean-up” to get rid of incompetence inside the ministry, the SocDems will face huge electoral costs, the former head of state pointed out.
The vice-chairman of the Defence Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Ionel-Bogdan Rodeanu (USR) said that Moga’s resignation comes amid acute lack of professionalism of the police, arguing that the policeman who took over Alexandra’s call did not know to push a button to open the tracking application.
PLUS leader Dacian Ciolos retorted that Nicolae Moga’s resignation is a first step of “decency and normality” in the Dancila Cabinet, adding that he now expects PSD and also President Iohannis to name an expert at the helm of the Interior Ministry.
On the other hand, journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu told Digi24 that Moga’s resignation is in fact an act of cowardice.
“Of course, the resignation looks like a run away, which is putting a bomb on the cake of the Romanian state institutions (…) All these resignations and dismissals won’t solve a thing. They look like dead bodies thrown from the balcony by the current ruling coalition to save itself,” the journalist argued.
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