Bolojan says he understands the “emotion created” after the Recorder revelations, although he hasn't seen the documentary / Unexpected attack on Predoiu: “He obviously has a responsibility”
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan says “legislative fixes” are needed if the major problems in the justice system revealed by the Recorder investigation are confirmed. At the same time, the head of the government stated that he has not had time to watch the documentary yet, but “he sees the emotion that was created.
On Wednesday evening, the prime minister announced that he will check these aspects together with his advisers, with the representatives of the Ministry of Justice and that he will talk with the magistrates.
“I have not seen this film. However, I understand from the information I received that it shows systemic problems in the area of justice. I see the emotion that was created,” said Bolojan, in an interview on B1 TV, according to Agerpres.
“What we can do is to check together with my personal advisers, together with the team from the Ministry of Justice, what are the reported problems, to have a dialogue with the representatives of the magistrates, with the associations of magistrates, in such a way that if these systemic problems are confirmed, as I understand them to be described in this report, then inevitably some corrections must be made, which means legislative projects to correct the things that are not working properly”, added the prime minister.
“So people's emotion is probably given by what they saw, and always when people perceive a level of injustice that exceeds, let's say, a certain level, it's a form of protest,” Bolojan said.
The Prime Minister's statements were made even while hundreds of people protested, on Wednesday evening, in front of the headquarters of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) in the Capital, following the revelations in the Recorder documentary.
“Thieves Caught, Not Prescribed.” Hundreds of people protested in front of the CSM after the Recorder documentary and demanded resignations: “Out with you, Recorder is us!”
The protesters displayed placards with messages such as: “Corruption is suffocating the judiciary”, “How long do we struggle to be a European state”, “Change comes through involvement”, “How do you want to pay?”.
“Justice, not mafia!”, “No prescription for corruption”, “We want justice, not immunity” and “Thieves caught, not prescribed”, chanted the people who took to the streets.
A similar demonstration was held in Cluj.
The documentary “Captured Justice” was published on Tuesday evening by the Recorder on its YouTube channel. The film is a journalistic investigation about the state of justice in Romania, the phenomenon of statutes of limitations, but also the effects of the centralization of power at the level of “some magistrates who coexist with politicians”.
“Predoiu obviously has a responsibility for what happened in these years in the judiciary”
Wednesday night's interview on B1 Tv was the Prime Minister's second public outing on Wednesday regarding the Recorder revelations.
The first of these was on the “Friendly Fire” podcast, by journalists Moise Guran and Vlad Petreanu, broadcast on YouTube.
Bolojan admitted that “people simply no longer trust the justice system” nor in institutions and politicians.
“We see the trust in the political world, in the institutions, in the political personalities, in the direction in which Romania is moving, and this is related to our appreciation of those in politics, but we also see all the statistical data related to the trust in the judiciary and we find that this is also very low”, said the head of the Government.
“People simply do not trust the justice system either. Where do these perceptions come from? On the one hand, from a sense of inequity, of the perception that we do not provide the services that citizens expect and justice provides a public service. (…) Secondly, a sense of perception of injustices, which people see, and imagine that when they see that in the political world someone has an enormous salary at a company, but the company is with enormous loss, nothing happens there, you can imagine what a feeling of injustice it is. In the judiciary, when certain situations are prescribed for which indubitable information has appeared, that there are serious problems and after which the prescription appears or there are sentences that are given contradictory, the perception of injustice is very strong”, commented Bolojan.
And then he launched an unexpected criticism of his party colleague, PNL First Vice-President Cătălin Predoiu, who for years was the Minister of Justice. Currently, Predoiu is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs.
“No man who has held a public office can evade a certain responsibility. This is the truth. And all the ministers of Justice, including Mr. Predoiu, those who were before him, those who are now, have a responsibility within the limits of the tools they have and the possibilities they have, to correct the negative things that have accumulated”, said Bolojan.
“Mr. Predoiu, being the Minister of Justice for a period of time, obviously has a responsibility for what happened in these years, just as I have a responsibility for how Oradea looks because I was the mayor of Oradea”, said the head of the Government.
