President Iohannis at DNA stocktaking meeting: Witnessing vicious actions to subordinate justice. Inadmissible!

President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday that a raft of vicious actions and manipulation attempts have been unleashed lately to dent the credibility of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) and subordinate justice, stressing that this is inadmissible.

"The National Anticorruption Directorate, as part of the Public Prosecution Office, and Justice as a whole, provide the necessary mechanisms to rid Romania of corruption. Unfortunately, we have lately been witnessing vicious manifestations of despair and manipulation attempts aimed at sapping DNA's credibility, the agency's activity, and obvious attempts to subordinate justice to politics. Inadmissible!" Iohannis told the meeting for the presentation of the DNA 2017 stocktaking report.

He argued that "after being caught red-handed by the institutions of the state, a handful of indicted persons and convicts have joined efforts towards discrediting those who investigated them."

"As a Romanian saying goes - the lie has short legs, it walks until it's exposed. All these concerted media actions run no chance of success. Their masterminds are living in the past, with the illusion that power means privileges and is exercised through abuse," said Klaus Iohannis, who went on to say that democracy has consolidated in Romania.

"Justice is now independent and efficient, and the civic spirit of the Romanian society has lately courageously come forth," the President said.

Iohannis pointed out that "in the struggle between old and new, between those who live off corruption and those who fight it, between those who have only their own future on mind and those who think of the future of this country, the winner will be modern, European Romania that acts on the basis of the values of western democracy and the rule of law."

"Why does the syntagm 'original democracy' come to my mind? I think this is, to a certain extent, the source of corruption and abuse of power," said President Iohannis.AGERPRES(RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Maria Voican)