Street protests reignite in Romania over controversial amendments to the pardon draft bill

Over 1,500 people took to the streets in Bucharest, on Wednesday evening, hours after MPs in the Judicial Committee of the Senate passed amendments to the draft pardon bill that would apply for people jailed for corruption.

The amendments, which were backed by the ruling left wing party PSD and by former president Traian Basescu, state that any person jailed for corruption that repays the loss incurred to the public budget would get out of jail. This provision would apply to those behind bars for bribery and influence peddling.

Protesters that gathered near the government building in Victoriei Square carried signs that read: „You won’t get away”, „DNA should come and get you”, „PSD, red plague”, You stole and sold 23 million Romanians.”

Tens of people gathered in other cities including Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Brasov to call for the withdrawal of these amendments.

What’s next?

The draft bill will have to be voted by senators and will move next to the Chamber of Deputies, where there will be another vote. If the draft bill gathers enough votes in Parliament, it will be submitted to president Klaus Iohannis. The head of state can sign the draft bill into law and Iohannis might send it back into Parliament for another vote or challenge the draft bill at the Constitutional Court. It is still too early to say how the final version of the draft bill ending on the table of the president will look like.

Government backs its own pardon draft bill: PM Sorin Grindeanu wrote on Facebook on Wednesday evening that the government supports the pardon draft bill that was published by the Ministry of Justice and not the version that was amended by MPs.

What the protests tell us: The street protests reignited less than two months after hundreds of thousands of people called for the repeal of a controversial government ordinance that would partially decriminalize the abuse in office. Since then, the government repealed the ordinance. Shortly after, the government reshuffle and the minister of justice, Florin Iordache, who backed these changes, was replaced by Tudorel Toader, a former constitutional judge.

The center left government is backed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE). The coalition currently holds the majority of votes in Parliament.