Senate speaker: Partnership proposed by Iohannis to Parliament turns into blunt criticism

Senate Speaker Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said in a release on Saturday that after the vote given by the senators on Varujan Vosganian case, the partnership recently proposed by President Klaus Iohannis to the Parliament 'has turned into blunt criticism of the opinion expressed by a majority of the senators'.

Photo credit: (c) Mihai POZIUMSCHI / AGERPRES PHOTO

Tariceanu thus answered the criticism levelled by the Romanian head of state and General Prosecutor Tiberiu Nitu regarding the negative vote given by the Senate on the prosecutors' request to strip senator Vosganian of immunity and thus allow his prosecution in a case involving natural gas company Romgaz.

Such criticism, the Senate head stressed, 'questions the Senate's capability of passing judgement on an extremely serious matter'.

He underscored that as recently as on Monday, Feb. 9, President Iohannis said in an address to a joint session of the legislature that he 'wishes a powerful Parliament' and that 'the president's partnership with the Parliament answers the need to restore the confidence in this fundamental institution of the democracy'.

'After the Senate's vote, the partnership proposed by the president to restore the confidence has turned into blunt criticism of the opinion expressed by a majority of the senators. /.../ While I share the president's opinion regarding the need of a change demanded by the voters on the occasion of the presidential elections, it is absolutely necessary to define the benchmarks of such a change, before we set off to change things,' he said.

Tariceanu added, 'If we were to judge by what the president said on Monday, but mostly after the president's open criticism of the vote in the Senate, then the change seems rather a...