Romania leader urges referendum on pardon for corrupt politicians
BUCHAREST: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced Monday that he would call for a referendum on a controversial government proposal that would pardon corrupt politicians and decriminalise other offences.
“Romanians will be able to express themselves, to say if they agree” with the proposal, the centre-right president said in a televised speech.
More than 15,000 Romanians, including Iohannis, joined protests on Sunday across Romania against the proposed decrees that if adopted would set free inmates serving sentences of up to five years for non-violent crimes.
That would include several elected officials and magistrates who are behind bars after being convicted of corruption.
“It is unacceptable to modify the law so that the cases of dozens, even hundreds, of politicians, are wiped out,” Iohannis said at the protest in Bucharest.
The social- democratic government of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu had published the two contested emergency decrees today that would pardon around 2,500 prisoners.
Grindeanu planned to implement the measures through emergency ordinances that would bypass parliament and would not require Iohannis’s signature.
The formal adoption of the decrees today, which according to local media was expected, was delayed at the request of Iohannis, who made a rare appearance at a cabinet meeting.
The pardon decrees are also opposed by top judicial authorities and some non- governmental organisations.
Justice Minister Florin Iordache however has defended the proposals, saying they would help unburden overcrowded jails. — AFP