The scandal in the justice system is a massive litmus test for the Romanian judiciary, an unprecedented issue considering the fact that this time the core of the problem concerns not (only) corruption from the outside, but the corruption from within.
It is a litmus test all the more interesting because the story of the different clans in the judiciary, which manipulate cases according to their own, party and business interests overlaps with the total war declared against the government and society for the privileges they enjoy: special pensions, a privileged retirement age, and payments they secured by suing the state.
At the same time, it is a massive litmus test for the political class, given that politicians are fully aware of the current situation.
And at this point, the entire political spectrum_ both the ruling and opposition parties_ are in the crosshairs,.
It would be childish to think that the parties that have held the post of justice minister can distance themselves from this scandal as if they hadn’t the foggiest idea what was going on. The same applies to parties which ran the parliamentary legal committees as well as those that were involved in negotiations and voting on the justice laws.
Given the context, assuming responsibility for the way justice has evolved in the last 10 years needs to be taken into account from the start. The Social Democrats and the National Liberal Party have a great moral and political exam ahead.
However, the situation isn’t any better for the current opposition.
The current opposition is made up of the so-called “patriots” It is a caricature of this name, these so-called patriots with their pro-Putin discourse, their pro-Russian agenda, and all of this at a time of war carried out by Russia on Romania’s borders.
Systematically vocal, with a vitriolic discourse against everything that would contravene the interests of the nation, these “patriotic” opposition parties have been tactically silent since the privileges of magistrates were questioned and continued in the same vein when the Recorder documentary about the Mafia in the judiciary exploded.
The three nationalist parties and their leaders, including failed presidential candidate Calin Georgescu, have failed to express an opinion on the subject of justice for months.
On the rare occasions when they actually said something, they jumped not at the neck of the “beast”, but of its victims. The case of George Simion who said he wasn’t bothered by the Lia Savonea group and the practices of the CSM is telling, but by the documentary Recorder and by all those who applauded him.
In theory, the apathy of the so-called “patriots” in politics, who have Putin and Trump in their hearts, is surprising: how exactly are those who pretend to stoically defend the people are actually on the side of those who greedily milk the people?
In practice, however, this behavior is not that surprising.
The three parties plus Călin Georgescu systematically have an identical attitude when it comes to the number one enemy of the Romanian people: Russia and the Putin regime.
So far, I have not been able to identify a point on Moscow’s agenda that these “patriots” always wrapped in the Romanian tricolor have not served with Soviet-style zeal.
hey criticize anything (except the Mafia in the judiciary, of course) and they can relate to anyone (except the Mafia bosses in the judiciary, of course), but as it gets to the aggressor Russia in Ukraine, they jump at Ukraine’s throat; and as soon as it comes to the crimes ordered by Putin against Ukrainians or Russian dissidents, the “patriots” jump at Zelensky’s throat.
If tomorrow Romania were to be invaded by the Russian army, the problem would be colossal for Romanian society not only at the borders, but also within them.
Because we know well from Ukraine’s experience, the political sphere in Kiev, servile to Moscow in peacetime, servile in times of war (with disastrous consequences growing – how else?)
For the parties in power, therefore, there is a litmus test – justice and their own responsibility in relation to its evolution.
But for the opposition parties, the shocking thing is that the problems are twofold: justice, given their responsibility for clemency towards the mafia in this system; respectively Russia, given their responsibility for promoting Moscow’s narratives and interests in our public and political space.
