President: Opposition and Minority Groups Embraced Idea of Referendum

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday that opposition and minority groups in the Parliament agreed to his proposed referendum on the justice system and expressed concern with developments in the field, following several hours of talks on the subject.

“We discussed the situation of the judiciary. Everyone who attended today’s talks was concerned with evolutions in that field. I told them directly that, in my opinion, this Social Democrat Party assault on the justice system, two years in the making, must receive a direct response from Romanians, evidently in the form of a referendum. All those who took part in the talks this afternoon embraced the idea of a referendum,” the head of state said in a press conference following the talks.

Iohannis added that he will announce the questions which will be asked in the referendum after he receives a response from the Parliament on his proposal to widen the vote’s scope.

The president previously announced that he requested the Parliament to review new subjects for the referendum in order to widen its scope, namely bans on the Government’s powers to issue judicial decrees and the issuing of amnesty or pardoning bills for corruption offences. Lawmakers initially agreed in 2017 to call a referendum on the fight against corruption.

The head of state is scheduled to meet the two ruling coalition parties, PSD and ALDE, for talks on the same subjects on Friday.

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