“No more criminals in public office” citizens’ initiative

Chamber of Deputies adopts citizens proposal to revise Constitution to ban people with criminal convictions from public office.

Eugen Coroianu, 15.07.2020, 14:00

The initiative entitled No more criminals in public
office provides for persons who received prison sentences for acts committed
with intent to no longer be able to stand for public office in the local
administration and Parliament or for president of the country unless the
consequences of conviction are removed as a result of a new development. The leader
of the centre-right Save Romania Union Dan Barna spoke about this historic
moment and recalled that his party constantly pushed for this initiative to be
debated as soon as possible by Parliament. He said the move does a little bit
of moral justice to Romania:

Today, a simple phrase becomes reality. It will no
longer be possible to hold public office if you have a criminal conviction and
to pretend that you have the moral justification to lead that institution.

Dan Barna also said that the one million people who
signed this initiative finally have their voice heard in public life. The
ruling National Liberal Party says it supported the bill in the hope that it will
remain a citizens’ initiative and will not be transformed into a political
instrument. Here’s the leader of the party’s group of deputies, Florin Român:

As a signatory of this initiative and as someone who
helped collect signatures, I would have liked this initiative not to be tainted
politically, because the list of signatures did not have at the top a party
logo or a doctrine. It only said very clearly that it was something the
citizens wanted.

The leader of Social Democratic MPs, the largest group
in Parliament, Alfred Simonis, spoke about political consensus and responsibility
in making important decisions. In his opinion, this initiative can help earn
back people’s trust in politicians:

There is now a split that is reflected in a low level
of trust in politicians. The Social Democratic Party, as Romania’s biggest
party, even has the obligation to spearhead the change in the relationship between
citizens and politicians.

The centre-right People’s Movement Party also
underlines that this is a project that is not associated with any political
party and that what’s important is for its principle to become law as soon as
possible in order to be applied. The bill will next be debated by the Senate,
but in order to become law it must be put to a referendum to be held within 30
days of the adoption of the bill by the upper chamber of Parliament. The Save
Romania Union has proposed that the referendum be held at the same time as the
local elections on the 27th September, given the health situation connected
to the spread of Covid-19. (CM)