Lawyer Ana Birchall, a former justice minister in the Social Democrat government led by Viorica Dăncilă, plans to run for president in this year's elections as an independent, she told television station Digi24.

Birchall said she was entering the presidential race "to fight the injustices" that Romanians face. "Every Romanian is faced every day with injustice, leads an unfair fight with incompetence, abuse, laws that apply only to some, and with interest groups."

She argued the state of local justice is "much worse than in 2017, 2018, and 2019" and pointed to the "organized corruption" preventing the country from developing.

Birchall explained she is running as an independent to avoid "being a puppet" and argued Romania needs "an impartial and independent president" who is not connected to any interest groups.

Birchall served as justice minister between April 2019 and November 2019, after a period as interim justice minister replacing Florin Iordache, who resigned following massive anticorruption street protests. She was excluded from PSD in November 2019. She was also a minister for European Affairs between January and June 2017, and a deputy in Romania's Parliament between 2012 and 2020. She holds a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Bucharest and a master's degree from Yale Law School.

After holding the local and EU Parliament elections on June 9, Romania will also organize presidential and parliamentary elections this year. The date of the presidential elections is still under discussion. After earlier announcements that the presidential elections would be held in September, the National Liberal Party (PNL) argued in favor of deferring them to December.

(Photo: Gov.ro)

simona@romania-insider.com