Page 3 - bne_newspaper_June_01_2018

Top Stories
June 1, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 3
his post — a long procedure involving a public referendum.
The ruling coalition is now likely to capitalise on the situation and intensify its rhetoric against what it says are abuses committed by the DNA. The coalition is in the process of fully revising the country’s justice laws.
Previous attempts to weaken Romania’s anticor- ruption fight have sparked mass protests. How- ever the numbers of people taking to the streets have tailed off recently, and never again reached the hundreds of thousands seen in early 2017.
Nonetheless, the political turmoil anticipated after the May 30 ruling might spill over and have an economic impact should the president refuse to dismiss Kovesi, thus triggering a lengthy political crisis that would include the ruling coalition’s attempts to suspend Iohannis from his post and massive street protests.
This is a radical scenario suggested by statements from the leaders of Romania’s fragile and divided political opposition, but Iohannis has not com- mented yet. Under the scenario of a prolonged political crisis, the ruling coalition led by the PSD can be expected to continue its populist measures in an attempt to gain popular support, trigger-
ing uncontrolled inflation and a weakening of the national currency. Foreign direct investments have historically demonstrated more resilience to such political shocks.
The more optimistic scenario includes a quick dismissal of Kovesi (who might even resign to
shorten the procedures) and the opening of negotiations for the appointment of a politically unbiased new head of the DNA under the supervision of the European Union.
Opposition leaders, meanwhile, took unrealisti- cally radical positions against the Constitutional Court.
"It takes the form of a coup d’etat. The Constitu- tional Court does not have the capacity to impose decisions on the president of Romania,” the head of the country’s largest opposition party, the Na- tional Liberal Party, Ludovic Orban, stated. Orban argued that the president is the most legitimate elected authority and therefore he cannot be forced to make a decision against the will of the people who gave him the mandate. He accused Constitutional Court members of having “violated the Constitution”.
Dacian Ciolos, former European commissioner and former prime minister of a government of technocrats (2015-2016), who has since set up a political party, claims that the Constitutional Court members were wrong when deciding the government has the power to dismiss Kovesi, and suggests that they should be appointed by a different procedure.
“The “judges” of the Constitutional Court take political reasoning as legal reasoning” Ciolos stated. He argued that the magistrates’ body CSM, which gave a negative consultative view to government’s move against Kovesi, is the true authority that can make final decisions.