Romanian PM vows to drop judicial changes

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă said she will abandon controversial judicial reforms, signaling a change in direction for her party after its longtime leader was jailed last week.

Under Liviu Dragnea, long Romania’s de facto leader, Dăncilă’s Social Democrats (PSD) had pushed for a number of judicial changes, which were met with street protests and attracted rebuke from the European Commission as well as Western countries’ embassies in Bucharest, which warned the measures could lead to a backsliding in the country’s fight against high-level corruption.

But popular opinion has turned against these reforms: The party faced a drubbing in the European Parliament election, and a majority of Romanians voted in a non-binding referendum against the government being able to change judicial law through emergency decrees, as well as against the government granting amnesty or pardons for graft-related crimes.

Dragnea was sentenced the day after the votes to three and a half years in prison in a case involving fake jobs for party workers, and Dăncilă — once seen as a Dragnea loyalist — took over as interim leader.

Now, Dăncilă told POLITICO, she aims to put the PSD on a new path.

“This topic did a lot of harm to the party and polarized our society,” Dăncilă said in a phone interview from Bucharest. “I want the PSD to become a party of balance, and from now on, the justice subject does not exist on the government’s agenda, but we will focus on areas of interest that are a priority for people, such as health, education and infrastructure.”

The PSD had previously pushed, for example, for an emergency decree on the criminal code that was expected to reduce the statute of limitations for multiple offenses, saying it is necessary to bring the code in line with a Constitutional Court decision. But critics argued the reform would be used to benefit Dragnea.

“I could not say that this agenda was linked only to Mr. Dragnea. There have been many issues that have appeared in the public space regarding actions against people who were proven innocent,” Dăncilă said of the judicial reforms.

She added that while there should be a debate about the Romanian justice system, the PSD had perhaps taken that discussion too far.

“I think politicians should not intervene in the justice system,” she said.

The third PSD prime minister since the party returned to power in January 2017, Dăncilă was a member of the European Parliament when Dragnea picked her for the job. Asked whether she is now betraying Dragnea by pushing the party in a new direction, Dăncilă said one cannot speak of treason and touted the experience that got her the job.

“I have been a PSD member for 23 years. I went from being a simple member to being chairman of a local party organization, local councilor and then nine years as an MEP.”

Mending bridges

Dăncilă has already taken steps to cleanse the PSD of some of Dragnea’s influence. In the week since she’s become party leader, Dăncilă has fired two of her top advisers that were close to Dragnea. A meeting of the PSD leadership a day after Dragnea went to jail also purged some of Dragnea’s loyalists, such as Codrin Ștefănescu, who was replaced as the party’s secretary-general.

She’s also looking to mend damaged relations in Brussels, heading there for two days on Monday to try to smooth over tensions caused by the judicial reform push with both the Commission and the Party of European Socialists.

She’s due to meet with Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who wrote a letter in May threatening to take action against Romania, including potentially suspending its voting rights in the Council over the judicial system changes.

Dăncilă will also meet PES President Sergei Stanishev to discuss a potential thaw in relations after the PES froze ties with the Romanian party over rule-of-law concerns in April.

“I think it’s important to go back to normal, and that means belonging to PES,” Dăncilă said.

She added that she is confident she could repair damages to the relationship also caused by a lack of dialogue and Dragnea not taking part in many PES meetings in Brussels.

Democratizing the PSD

Dăncilă also wants the party’s MPs to be able to decide for themselves how to vote on various issues based on the interests of their constituents, rather than following marching orders from the party leader.

“We will focus on integrity, meritocracy and transparency. I believe we will succeed and that the PSD will return to integrity,” she said.

“I want to see a change, bringing democracy in the party and that we do what citizens want us to,” she added.

But with the party still set to officially vote on a new leader this summer, it’s unclear how much of her new agenda she’ll be able to implement if she doesn’t take the top spot. Dăncilă said she has not yet decided whether she will run, and many other members are now jostling for the party’s presidency.

The PSD cannot change “radically and fast,” said Radu Magdin, a political consultant who has worked with the PSD before.

“In the medium term, they can change radically, but they need a strong leadership,” he said. There were several attempts from within the PSD to take down Dragnea before he ultimately fell, but none succeeded because he had the support of a majority in the party, Magdin said. “At the moment, it is very hard to cover a power vacuum that comes after a tight power grip, like Dragnea’s.”

The party doesn’t want to lose power and it will make all the changes it sees as necessary to project stability, especially for the people who voted for them, according to Magdin.

He also said quarreling between the opposition National Liberal Party and the USR Plus Alliance parties, who were the winners of the European election, will favor the PSD, despite the delicate situation it’s facing. The two parties clashed during the campaign and have disagreed in recent days over tax breaks for people working in IT.

Ahead of the presidential election later this year and local and parliamentary elections next year, making it through the summer by promoting some uncontroversial public policies will be important for the PSD, Magdin said.

But Dan Barna, president of USR, cast doubt over whether the PSD leadership is now able to reform the party.

“If we look at who leads the PSD, there are a lot of people who have been with Liviu Dragnea over the last three years. The party has been transformed into a party of servants, the level of competence is ridiculous[ly low],” he told POLITICO, echoing criticisms that other opponents of the PSD government have made.

“I don’t expect significant changes,” Barna added. “They believe that Liviu Dragnea’s departure solved everything and they can go back to what they’ve been doing for the past 30 years.”