President Klaus Iohannis announced Tuesday that he signed the two decrees regarding Florian Coldea: the removal from post and placing him in reserve.
In his press statement at the Cotroceni Palace, Klaus Iohannis reminded that during these days, there was much discussion in public and in Parliament, about the secret services.
„These discussions may seem, at the first glance, counterproductive, but I think it is good that they discussed about the secret services, about their place and role, about the parliamentary control. I would like to emphasize though some important things. It is important to draw two red lines.
One is about how the services relate to politics. More simply put, about whether it is better or not for them to get involved in politics. My opinion is that this is not good.
The second red line: how much and how politics interfere in the intelligence service activity. What about the politicisation of the intelligence services. My belief is that this is not good either.
If we wish to have strong services that do their job well, and politicians calm and happy about how they relate to the services, an effective, efficient and transparent parliamentary control is needed. Meaning that the Parliament should exercise a strong control over the services, but not a biased control.
There is no way for certain party’s politics to define how to exercise the parliamentary control on services. Negotiations between power and opposition are necessary. It is necessary for both to be involved in these committees.
It would be good for the new parliament to discuss and clarify these things. The new parliament has a lot of work to do in the field of national security.
I counted again along with my advisers and found that at least 12 laws related to national security need to be updated, half of which relates to the intelligence services. This is an impressive amount of work for the Parliament,” said President Iohannis.
Referring to this new majority formed by PSD and ALDE, with the UDMR’s support, President Iohannis said in his speech that it faces „a maturity test” lying ahead.
„This majority, I believe, will have to prove also about this much-rumoured case of amnesty and pardon whether it is mature or still have to work on that. The measure of maturity will also be given by how they address the laws regarding the judiciary system, including a possible amnesty and pardon type of legislative approach.
What sort of majority shall we have? We do not know yet. For now, it did nothing. Oh, they voted several populist promises made during the campaign, and they appointed some heads of committees – that was easy.
Shall we have a majority eager to prove that it makes the games in the Parliament, to whiten the defendants’ files? Or a mature majority understanding that Romania is only one, which will join the President so that together we guarantee the national security, the rule of law and prove that Romania is safe for its citizens, a powerful country in the chorus of other nations. I wish for and expect the latter option,” said President Iohannis.
