“I don’t know if anything works better in Romania than corruption in the judiciary” – a former judge said in an interview with Euronews Romania about the devastating documentary, Captured Justice, broadcast by Recorder.
Her conclusion is all the more relevant as comes from someone who was part of the system; a system whose rottenness had become manifestly evident for years; a system so decomposed that society had to hold its hand on its nose, particularly since an offensive by High Court chief judge Lia Savonea and the Supreme Council of Magistrates this year against government reform of magistrates’ special pensions.
And yet, like any dictatorship in this world, which seems indestructible for decades, only to lethally crack overnight and collapse faster than the members of the regime are able to process what happens to them, the dictatorship established in the Romanian justice system seems to be on the same path.
A few hours after the Recorder documentary went live, the elite in the justice system found themselves challenged and exposed to events that were out of their control.
In just 24 hours, the dictatorship in justice went through the first two of the three stages: it had seemed indestructible until it suddenly cracked in a matter of hours. It remains to be seen if it will collapse, and if so, it remains to be seen what will emerge in its place.
Because the experience of the fall of this kind of regime gives as many reasons for optimism as pessimism. In some cases, after the necessary struggles, an open society emerges, but in others one perhaps as closed and rotten as the previous one emerges.
For the way the future will look is decisively played out in the midst of current events and everything depends on who retains or takes control of the “revolution”.
In the phase we are in, we have the following encouraging and essential elements:
- The spark generated a chain media reaction – the Recorder documentary was immediately picked up by numerous other media outlets, not just websites, but also by televisions, not only by private televisions, but also by the national public television station.
- The trigger generated a popular reaction – the total audience recorded was extraordinary (Eds: over 2 million in the first day), and people began to take to the streets.
- The popular reaction catalyzed a chain reactions from within: almost 200 magistrates swiftly showed solidarity with fellow dissidents who had appeared in the documentary and were later targeted by the “poachers” of the dictatorial regime in the judiciary.
- The popular reaction and the solidarity of some magistrates fed up with this dictatorship provoked political reactions at the highest level – from the ruling coalition and from the Presidency.
The good signs for this phase are substantial both in terms of substance and number, but it is important to remember that the dynamics so far represent only one phase, the early phase.
In the case of such rupture movements, possible dangers start from now, because after the initial moment of shock and disintegration, the interest groups, which feel threatened, will try to close ranks and will try to retaliate accordingly or even disproportionately.
This does not mean that they will succeed, but it does mean that the fight will certainly get complicated.
And the point at which the fight will begin to get complicated is already a stone’s throw away: What to do next, once the problem is so devastatingly exposed? How do we fix the rotten system? What and how can it be put in place?
To these questions, the answers are neither simple nor immediate, although there are still answers.
Broadly speaking, but they will also have to be approached in detail and refined along the way, what should follow would involve at least the following steps:
- For ordinary citizens, constant and time-extended public pressure is needed as long as necessary, not a day, week, or a month less.
- For political forces who consider themselves reformist – a concerted effort is needed, and this time an honest and tireless one. For it will require not only declarations of intent and support, but also ample, appropriate and honest legislative changes (not like a part of the perennial changes made).
- On the part of the magistrates who consider that it is no longer possible – public assumption of their position and efficient organization in bodies that represent their interests, to compete with the rotten bodies in the system and to work with the reformist areas in the political sphere. This symbiosis – magistrates-parties – will necessarily be needed because some solutions must be found by the guild and within the guild, but others depend, as I said above, on a coherent effort to legislate.
- And last but not least, given the fact that the documentary exposed well-founded suspicions of abuses, it is necessary to investigate each case, each name of the magistrate and chief magistrate mentioned, each case of great corruption regarding which accusations of resolution were launched on underground routes. Of course, as President Nicușor Dan appealed to the magistrates to report other legally or institutionally abominable cases to Cotroceni, it is time for the magistrates to turn on the tap, and the newly signaled aspects should be dissected one by one.
The “poachers” at the top of justice system have the advantage of controlling representative forums and bodies, as well as various colleagues under their thumb, either with a stick or a carrot, or both.
But when hundreds of magistrates who really want a fresh start unite, the ability of the “poachers” to make the law through lawlessness will be dramatically reduced.
It’s not theory, it’s practice that counts. The truth is that the Mafia bosses in the justice system have never been more vulnerable than they are now, until now they have never given the impression that they are actually worried, something that could be seen for the first time on Thursday.
Magistrates who for years have felt too small for such big battles and too alone faced with an octopus with so many tentacles, have been given a strong signal, from society, from the media, and even from their own colleagues, that in fact they are neither small, nor few in nor alone.
Justice cannot become fairer and more efficient just by criticizing it silently or from the sidelines. Justice will become fairer and more efficient only if those who criticize it also take a big step towards action.
The muck under the carpet of the Savonea group must be brought into the light, the “criminal record” of the heavyweights in this bankrupt justice system must be properly investigated by magistrates, not only by the press, and the representative bodies must come under the control of the “revolutionaries” so they can finally be used in the letter and spirit in which they were created.
By doing so within the profession, not only will the counteroffensive at the top be inhibited, but it will also be possible to force the hand of politicians to implement the legislative changes that depend on new laws on which the authentic restructuring of the justice system depends.
- PS: Civil society should incessantly demand the resignation of the current heads of the judiciary whose names have been compromised by the suspicions aired in the Recorder investigation and other press investigations (because there have been a lot of articles on the topic). Political parties should make a stand either by supporting or not supporting these demands. And magistrates interested in reforms, likewise, have only to initiate the steps that they can make, through internal institutional means, by forcing dismissals or resignations. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt for them to take to the streets to strengthen their demands.
