Ex-Romanian PM proposes to lift the President's immunity

The lift of Romania’s President immunity and the introduction of the Parliamentary pass for the designations made by the chief of state – these are two proposals of Romanian ex-PM and PNL leader Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, according to Romanian news agency Mediafax.

„You said you were thinking at the modernisation of the political class. I wonder if by that you understand PDL’s recruiting MPs from other parties and the set-up if the presidential party. I believe this is the pattern we’ve got so far and you’ve got a firm ‘No’ from PNL for this model of reforming the political class”, Clain Popescu-Tariceanu said in the Deputies’ Chamber plenum, as a response to PM Emil Boc presenting the Government’s legislative priorities.

He told Boc that he had the „duty” to think of a serious reform of the institutions and „not in the least, we should think of the need to lift the presidential immunity, which is a singular case within all Romania’s public institutions.”

„The reform of the republic and of the institutions would mean firstly a more efficient and credible Parliament, a true tribune for political debate, where the Prime-Minister would present would present the main actions and directions taken by the Government at least once a month, would answer the opposition’s questions, tougher than the ones asked during friendly TV shows, where I have noticed hat you often go lately. I would proposed you thought of the following method the Parliament would work with: half of the time allocated to debates should be used for law projects submitted by the Government; a quarter of the time dedicated to debates should be allocated to the MP’s initiatives, out of which one day should belong to the opposition; one quarter of the time dedicated to parliamentary debates should be allocated to the role of control and evaluation of the public policies”, the ex-PM said.

„A Parliamentary reduced to 300 MPs doesn’t mean the modernisation of the state’s institutions” and „a less representative Parliament, a weak Parliament doesn’t mean a stronger and more democratic republic, on the contrary”, the LibDem leader says.

Calin Popescu-Tariceanu wants Romania’s president designations to be subjected to debates and the persons to be heard in the Parliament, preferably by the specialty commissions that will issue a pass.