Senate president Calin Popescu Tariceanu, who is also the leader of the Alliance of Democrats and Liberals (ALDE), the Social Democratic Party – PSD’s junior coalition partner, said he would “unconditionally” support a decision of the coalition to suspend president Klaus Iohannis.

PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said last week that the leaders of the ruling coalition will make a decision today, July 9, on whether they suspend president Klaus Iohannis or not. The main reason is that Iohannis so far refused to dismiss the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Department (DNA), Laura Codruta Kovesi, as requested by the Constitutional Court.

“The decisions of the Constitutional Court are mandatory. If one of the important institutions of the state - in this case the president - does not respect the Court's decisions, then from top to bottom, any citizen has the right to question whether he or she respects any of the justice rulings,” Tariceanu said at local TV station Antena 3, local Agerpres reported.

At the same time, he said that the PSD-ALDE would take all necessary steps to ensure that the parliamentary majority is secured if the decision to suspend the head of state is taken. At present, the coalition may not have the needed number of votes as many of the MPs are on vacation.

However, Tariceanu will not attend the coalition’s meeting scheduled for today because he went on vacation as well. He delegated the duties of Senate president to social democrat Adrian Tutuianu.

With the president suspended, Senate president Calin Popescu Tariceanu would take his prerogatives and the ruling coalition would be able to have the changes to the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code, as well as the three justice laws adopted in December 2017, promulgated. The coalition could also dismiss the DNA head, strongly-contested by the ruling parties as a representative of the so-called “shadow state”.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com