Romanians plan a new protest in Bucharest’s Victoriei Square this Sunday, during which they intend to show their support for the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA).

Moreover, they will also ask for the depoliticization of the Constitutional Court, according to the Facebook event. Some 500 appear as going to the protest while over 600 are interested in the event.

Referring to the investigation DNA initiated on the Government’s decision to adopt the emergency ordinance 13 (OUG13) on January 31, which aimed to change the Criminal Code, the Constitutional Court said on Monday that this action has led to a legal conflict between the Government and DNA.

CCR president Valer Dorneanu said that, by investigating how the bill was adopted, DNA has disrupted the normal functioning of the Government and the relationships that must exist between the judicial, executive and legislative.

In early-February, DNA started looking into how the Government drafted and adopted the controversial emergency ordinance that would have brought important changes to the criminal code. After several hearings, DNA recently decided to pass the case to the General Prosecutor’s Office, which is to continue the investigation on charges of favoring the offender, intellectual fraud, submitting inaccurate data to the Parliament or the Romanian President on the work of the Government or a Ministry, and hiding or destroying documents or evidence.

The DNA press release from Monday, February 27, explained how the events happened on the evening of January 31 when the Government adopted the controversial decree, but also the reasons behind the fact that the Government meeting was delayed.

For example, DNA prosecutors say that, around 17:00 on January 31, the Ministry of Justice required five opinions for promoting the emergency ordinance amending the Criminal Code, opinions that were supposed to be given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry for Relations with the Parliament, the Legislative Council, and the Superior Council of Magistracy. The Government scheduled a meeting for later the same day, at 19:45, including only discussions about the budget on the agenda. By that time, the Justice Ministry only got two of the five opinions it demanded for the emergency ordinance. The Government apparently pushed the meeting to around 21:00 to get a favorable opinion from the Ministry for Relations with the Parliament, which in the initial opinion criticized the lack of motivation for the emergency character of the ordinance.

In the Facebook event promoting the Sunday protest, the organizers say that “if DNA wouldn’t have looked into how the OUG 13 was adopted, we wouldn’t have found out today that the Ministry for Relations with Parliament initially offered a negative opinion on the ordinance amending the criminal codes, which is why the meeting was pushed to 21:00, so that a new opinion is drafted, this time a positive one.”

Referring to CCR’s ruling, the organizers added: “Today, we found out that DNA went over its limits in investigating this case. But if it was not this institution’s job, then who should bring these irregularities to light, and why not do it by now?”

Romanians have staged protests every night since the moment the Government adopted the controversial ordinance, although the decree was repealed in the meantime, and the justice minister resigned. However, people want the entire Government to resign. Last Sunday, the protesters in Bucharest and Cluj formed the EU flag using their smartphones and colored pieces of paper.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com