Romania's Justice minister Tudorel Toader earned himself the title of minister of thieves on Thursday, considering the way he chose for calling the dismissal of top anti-graft prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, comments HotNews.ro journalist Dan Tapalaga. For his part, the editor-in-chief of the news website, Cristian Pantazi, called minister Toader's monologue against Kovesi a "plea for thievery, for breaching the law and against Justice".
Dan Tapalaga commented that Toader's decision to call for Kovesi's dismissal was presented in a way that seemed dictated by the governing PSD party and loyal TV channels who defend corrupt officials.
He notes that the minister accused the DNA head of offense of opinion, defamation of the country and of other unsupported claims. In this way, writes Tapalaga, Toader pushed Romania off the map of the EU, as of today Romania is a problem country for Brussels officials. They will now have to deal with a state controlled by an organised crime group abusively named a "party", he writes.
And Tapalaga points out that while authorities in Hungary and Poland have ideologies to promote, Romania faces an "insurrection of criminals, with a last wave of organised crime on the state. The impact on foreign relations will be devastating". All these happen a day after a GRECO (group of states against corruption) mission left Bucharest at the end of an ad hoc visit - and two weeks prior to a EC team due to monitor the progress made by Romania in the field of justice.
Tapalaga also comments that the attack on the DNA comes at a difficult moment, after a year of wearing protests in defense of the fight against corruption, as well as after a long period of slender campaigns that have eroded public trust in state institutions.
It all depends, now, on President Iohannis, Tapalaga reads.
For his part, Cristian Pantazi, editor-in-chief of HotNews.ro, comments that instead of doing his job in the service of Justice minister Tudorel Toader did his duty to his political masters.
He comments that Toader's monologue looks like his one year in office: a continuous defense of criminals, inmates discontent with the crowded prisons, thieves who steal with one hand and hold the law books in the other.
He points out that in his presentation of a report on the activity of the DNA, Toader only listed what he saw as problems and did not mention one good thing made by the DNA chief. And he blamed her both for real and for imaginary facts, including ones circulated in the media by indicted people, but which have not been proven officially.
The report was put up to justify the unjustifiable, to sacrifice one of the few breaks in the way of criminals who have slowly taken reign of all the institutions in the country.
But all for the better, Pantazi comments: low profile President Iohannis, who has the ultimate decision on Kovesi, has an opportunity to return to public arena now.
Read Cristian Pantazi's full article (in Romanian) here
