Radio România Internațional

Tag: Interior Minister Carmen Dan

  • November 8, 2018 UPDATE

    November 8, 2018 UPDATE

    MEETING – The Romanian Interior Minister Carmen Dan is attending in Washington the EU-US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting. At the meeting, Carmen Dan will present Romanias priorities in the field during its presidency of the EU Council in the first half of next year. The EU is represented in Washington by the Austrian ministers of the interior and justice, on behalf of the current Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the members of the delegation representing Romania, the country that is to take over the Presidency in January 2019, and the European Commissioners for migration, home affairs and security.



    ACCUSATION – The National Anticorruption Directorate claims that the Speaker of the Romanian Senate, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, indirectly received 800,000 USD dollars worth of material benefits from an Austrian company while he was Romanias Prime Minister, in 2007-2008. The amount accounted for a 10% commission from the value of addenda and was used for the benefit of the dignitary. The case was opened in 2018, by bringing together three criminal cases, of which one was taken over by the anticorruption prosecutors, at the request of the Austrian judicial authorities. In a communiqué issued at the request of Agerpress News Agency, the Directorate also mentions the fact that, in keeping with the legal and constitutional provisions in force, prosecuting Tariceanu for bribe-taking is possible only if endorsed by the Senate. Previously, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu had stated the Government made no payment in relation to the Microsoft licenses during his term as prime-minister. We recall that several people, including ministers, have been prosecuted in the so-called Microsoft case, for acts of corruption in relation to license agreements concluded for schools, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.



    EC – On Thursday, the European Commission decided to send Romania a formal letter calling on the Romanian authorities to stop using the split VAT payment mechanism. According to the Commission, the mechanism runs counter to both the EU regulations in the field and the freedom to provide services. In another move, also on Thursday, the Commission noted that an energy producer in Romania – the Hunedoara Energy Complex – has received incompatible state aid amounting to 60 million Euros. According to the EC Representation in Romania, the state must recover the illegal aid and the related interests.



    JUDGE PANELS – On Friday, the High Court of Cassation and Justice will designate, by drawing lots, the members of the five-judge panels for 2018. There are four panels consisting of five judges, two for criminal and two for civil matters. On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court admitted the notification filed by prime-minister Viorica Dancila regarding the formation of the 5-judge panels and decided there was a constitutional conflict between Parliament and the High court of Cassation and Justice. The Constitutional Court has decided that the latter should urgently take measures to form the 5-judge panels.



    EPP – On Thursday, the German politician Manfred Weber was elected candidate of the European Peoples Party (EPP) for the seat of president of the future European Commission (2019-2024). Weber, who got 80% of the votes, defeated the Finish Alexander Stubb. The Romanian parties members of EPP, the National Liberal Party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians and Peoples Movement Party supported Weber. On Wednesday, the first day of the Congress, EPP adopted a resolution calling for the observance of the EUs fundamental values. The document reads that nationalist and populist extremism, disinformation, discrimination and failure to observe the rule of law are the biggest threats against freedom and democracy in Europe, after the fall of the Iron Curtain. We recall that the next EC is to be formed after next years elections for the European Parliament, due in spring.



    AIR BASE – On Friday, the Romanian Defense Minister Mihai Fifor and his Canadian counterpart Harjit Singh Sajjan pay a visit to the Mihail Kogalniceanu air-base in south-eastern Romania. According to the Romanian Defense Ministry, the two officials will meet with the Canadian detachment deployed in Romania. The 135 Canadian soldiers are taking part in air policing missions, under NATO command.



    HANDBALL – The Romanian mens handball team Dinamo Bucharest defeated Ademar Leon of Spain on home turf on Thursday, in a match part of Champions Leagues Group D. The victory brought Dinamo 10 points and made it top of the group. The main contenders for the qualification to the play-offs, are Ademar Leon, with 9 points, and Wisla Plock (Poland) and Elverum (Norway) with 8 points each. This is the third season for Dinamo Bucharest in the most important inter-club competition in the world.

  • Investigation into the August 10 events

    Investigation into the August 10 events

    The authorities have not yet shed light on the violent actions reported at the anti-government protest organised in Bucharest on August 10 by the Romanian Diaspora, despite the statements made by the interior minister Carmen Dan and the fact that two weeks have already elapsed since then. On Sunday evening, minister Dan gave a press conference which she started by presenting her apologies to all those who were subject to a form of violence at the rally, both civilians and gendarmes, after which she presented the sequence of events as well as a summary of what she called “fake news and lies”, which, according to Carmen Dan, circulated in the online environment and the mass-media.



    Two days later, when she was heard in Parliament, she spoke again about the events of August 10, saying the report she had received from the relevant structures in her subordination would be made available to the relevant committee in the Chamber of Deputies as soon as the parliamentary procedure was completed. Carmen Dan added that she had no operative responsibilities during the protest, claiming that she only attended a briefing with those coordinating the action.



    Carmen Dan: “There wasn’t any operative meeting, there was a briefing, and on that occasion I requested to receive a first report on the mission the next day. It is not the minister’s responsibility to clarify aspects related to the operative mission because it is not the minister who has the legal responsibility to intervene in making operative decisions.”



    The right of centre opposition in Bucharest believes the minister should resign and has expressed discontent with the classification of the report on the August 10 events and with the absence of the Bucharest prefect from the hearings.



    The representative of the opposition National Liberal Party Victor Paul Dobre says: “Today, only one person, a decision-maker, the capital’s prefect, was missing from the hearings, and as the interior minister said, the prefect was the person who made a decision, after holding consultations with the unit commander. The person with whom we could have clarified the reasons for the intervention and other aspects related to it was missing, therefore we did not receive answers to our many questions. The capital’s prefect is not just a regular official, she is the person who represents the Romanian Government in the city hall of Bucharest, the capital of the country.”



    In the opposition’s opinion, Carmen Dan is trying to cover up the Gendarmerie’s responsibility in the events, when peaceful protesters were attacked with tear gas and brutalised. Hundreds of people have lodged criminal complaints against the gendarmes, whereas the Social Democratic Party denounces an alleged coup meant to forcefully topple a legitimate government. (translated by Diana Vijeu)

  • Excuses and accusations on the Romanian political scene

    Excuses and accusations on the Romanian political scene

    Fiercely contested for the way in which the Gendarmerie acted during the Diasporas anti-government protest of August 10, the Interior Minister Carmen Dan presented some aspects of a report on the events of August 10, which is a classified document for the moment. As compared to other protests, the behavior of the mass of protesters was different on this occasion, says Carmen Dan, according to whom the peaceful protesters were reticent to take a step back from the aggressive intruders, therefore the gendarmes mission to isolate and extract the violent persons from the group of protesters was made difficult if not impossible to fulfill.



    Football fans supposedly had an important role in the violent actions. According to minister Carmen Dan, they infiltrated the crowd in different spots, which prevented the gendarmes from blocking their access to the protest area. The authorities report shows that the first violent actions were reported in the afternoon, when the violent persons forced their advance towards the government courtyard through the line of gendarmes. Incidents and provocations continued until 10 p.m. when the gendarmes issued a last warning, minister Dan added, and order was re-established after midnight. 450 people needed medical assistance on the spot, during the protests, of whom 33 gendarmes.



    Minister Carmen Dan: “I start by presenting my apologies to all those who had to suffer following last weeks violence, be they civilians or military gendarmes. We started an internal investigation into the actions of the gendarmes involved in the August 10 mission and, so far, we identified 5 cases of alleged abuse against peaceful people.”



    The interior minister also denounced what she called “fake news and lies” that circulated in the online environment and the mass-media and said that people should separate truth from lies in the case of the August 10 violent repression. The president of the opposition Save Romania Union party, Dan Barna, has again called for Carmen Dans resignation, whom he accuses of trying to cover up the responsibility of the gendarmes who used tear gas against and brutalized the peaceful demonstrators. In a Facebook post, he says that it is unacceptable to put the blame for what happened on the peaceful protesters and to actually accuse the very victims of the repression.



    The first vice-president of the Liberal Party Raluca Turcan believes that the Gendarmerie was discredited and the interior minister Carmen Dan and the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea, the strongman of the Social Democratic Party, should take all the blame for this situation. As many as 300 people made criminal complaints against the gendarmes. There are many video recordings showing peaceful people being hit by gendarmes. These images clearly prove that the riot police acted abusively, the President Klaus Iohannis and the opposition parties accused in one voice. In reply, the Social Democrats denounce an alleged attempt to overthrow the government by force. (translated by Lacramioara Simion)