Nicușor Dan, about the appointments to SRI and SIE: “We do not allow ourselves to make games”. How to see the issue of magistrates
President Nicușor Dan avoided commenting on the names for SRI and SIE leadership, stressing that discussions are “only speculation” until an agreement with the parliamentary majority.
Nicușor Dan avoided commenting on the names conveyed for SRI and SIE Photo: Archive
President Nicușor Dan said that he will not submit proposals for the management of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) until he has the guarantee that they will be accepted by the Parliament. The head of state said that, at present, there is no agreement with the leaders of the majority, and all public discussions are “At the level of speculation”.
“We do not allow ourselves to make games”
From Chisinau, where he participated in the events dedicated to the Day of the Romanian Language, Nicușor Dan emphasized the importance of political and institutional stability.
“When there is an agreement between me and the representatives of the majority in the Parliament you will have news, until then we are at the level of speculation. I think stability is important for Romania at the moment. We are not in a situation where we can afford to play, to send the president and the Parliament to refuse“He said, according to News.ro.
The head of state insisted that he would not advance any names without being sure of supporting the legislature: “When I make the official proposal, I will be sure that the Parliament will vote, and until then I will not have information about what I discussed behind the scenes”.
Tensions in coalition on proposals
Political sources claim that Nicușor Dan would consider the variant of lawyer Gabriel Zbârcea for the head of the SRI and the diplomat Marius (Gabriel) Lazurca for the SIE leadership. Other names are Florin Vlădă, the head of the Office integrated information in Cotroceni, and Mircea Abrudean, the president of the Senate, supported by PNL.
According to sources, at the meeting on Tuesday night from the Government, where the president consulted with Ilie Bolojan and Sorin Grindeanu, Dan would have informed the leaders of the coalition about these intentions. The proposals would have aroused dissatisfaction and even indignation, taking by surprise the political partners. If he insisted on them, the head of state risks to face his first major political crisis, because the advanced names may not receive the vote of the Parliament, in the absence of PSD and possibly PNL.
Who are those mentioned for the head of services
Gabriel Zbârcea is a coordinating partner at the Law House “Țuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii”. In a two-year-old podcast stated: “I am a nationalist and a sovereign. I believed and believe in the EU, but in a Europe of the nations. My Romania is a beautiful country, with extremely inventive people”.
The law firm of Zbârcea represented the company Roșia Montană Gold Corporation in the process by which the Canadian company requested damages of $ 6.5 billion and also had contracts with Gazprom in Romania.
The diplomat Marius Lazurca, carved for the head of the SIE, is currently the Romanian ambassador to Mexico and has previously been an ambassador to Hungary, the Republic of Moldova and the Vatican. During his term in Budapest, he was firmly opposed to the revisionist politics of Viktor Orbán.
According to the Constitution, the president proposes the persons for the management of the secret services, and the Parliament decides by vote. For validation it is necessary to support most of the parliamentarians present.
Nicușor Dan, about magistrates: “They worked 2-3 times more than their European counterparts”
In the same context, President Nicușor Dan also spoke about the situation of the magistrates, stating that they have worked, in recent years, far above the European average.
“Magistrates in Romania worked these years 2-3 times more than their counterparts from European countries. Then, for a man who has a year until retirement, I think he is reasonable, given the complicated fiscal context in which we are, let's tell him to work double. That is, he has another year, to do two, he is three years old until retirement, to work six. Moreover, it seems to me excessive, given that they worked all this time“, Said the head of state, according to News.ro.
Nicușor Dan specified that the measures in the package of reforms concerning the judicial system were adopted following the consultation of the previous decisions of the Constitutional Court. “I also looked at the older RCC decisions, I can't tell what the CCR will do to this measure. As I saw the process, it worked carefully and reading the CCR decisions so far“Said the president.
He added that he insisted that the extension of the activity until the retirement would not exceed the double of the initial period: “What I insisted is that no more than double until you retire”.
