Deal signed by leaders of Romania governing coalition speaks of dismantling key justice, anti-corruption bodies. PM Victor Ponta calls it "intoxication", another signatory confirms it​

A document posted on the Internet and indicated by newspaper Adevarul depicts a deal signed by the leaders of Romania’s governing coalition with a union of redundant military personnel, other trade unions and civil society organizations. It speaks of dismantling such key state institutions as the Constitutional Court, the National Integrity Agency, the National Anti-Corruption Department and the body studying the archives of the Communist-era secret police, the Securitate. The head of the redundant military personnel’s union confirmed the document as real but said it was a draft deal which has to be discussed in detail. For his part, PM Victor Ponta said he only signed the first page of the document and that the story was fabricated by suspended President Traian Basescu’s staff.

• The story broke days before a referendum called by the governing coalition in which the Romanian people must say if they want or not to dismiss the suspended President. The referendum is the peak of a major political crisis in which the governing coalition of Social Democrats and Liberals (USL) tries to oust President Basescu, whose public support is waning.

The first page of the document is signed by the leaders of the USL coalition – Victor Ponta, Daniel Chitoiu and Daniel Constantin. This first page says that the USL leadership agrees with a list with objectives proposed by the member entities of the National Council of the Civil Society (CNSC, grouping several organizations) through the Trade Union of Redundant Military Personnel (SCMD). It says that each point of the list will be jointly edited in a final form starting July 18, based on talks with representatives of each CNSC structure which proposed them.

• Then, the document – as posted on the Internet – shows a long list of objectives, which includes, as „immediate goals”, dismantling „Stalinist-style political police structures and political tools” such as the Constitutional Court, the National Anti-Corruption Agency, the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives and the National Agency for Integrity.

Colonel Mircea Dogaru, head of the Trade Union of Redundant Military Personnel, confirmed for HotNews.ro that the document exists. He said it was a preliminary deal the provisions of which were to be discussed separately: „There are 53 signatories on our behalf, each with their own goals”, he said.

But Prime Minister Victor Ponta said this was an „act of intoxication” which was typical for the staff of suspended President Traian Basescu in the referendum campaign. He said that the first page – signed by the leaders of the USL coalition – had nothing to do with the rest of the pages, which he said he had never seen. He claimed only the first page was real.