February 1, 2023
On the Need for a Strong Parliament
Increasing the power of Parliament, as “the supreme representative organ of the Romanian people” — as article 61 of the Constitution establishes — represents the only possibility the Romanian people has of emerging from the present morass, of combating the Securitate metastasis and of exercising its national sovereignty.
It is quite simply #TheOnlySolution!
That is why, in the project for #TheRevisionOfTheConstitution entitled #TheConstitutionOfSovereignty, no fewer than 13 amendments were made to 7 of the articles of the present Constitution, with the sole aim of increasing the power of Parliament in the Romanian state. I know: to speak of Parliament and of increasing its power is a most unpopular subject, as unpopular as the institution of Parliament itself. But I must say one thing plainly: this unpopularity is likewise an effect of the work of the Caste of the Securitate men, who on the one hand discredit that institution constantly, both through the “independent” press and through concerted propaganda actions (do you remember the demonisation to which Petrov subjected parliament?!?), and on the other through the actions of certain more or less “bestarred” parliamentarians who, by their acts or omissions, work directly to destroy the prestige of the supreme forum of the Romanian people.
One thing alone is certain: the weaker Parliament is, the more the personified dictatorship of the System will grow. And one further remark… what defines a democracy is not the popularity and the power of the president or of one or more of the state’s organs of force, such as the army or the fire brigade. Powerful presidents and powerful organs of force are found in the harshest dictatorships in the world… When you say North Korea, what comes to mind?
That is why, at any price, at any risk, whether we like it or not, Parliament is the institution that must be strengthened, that must become omnipotent in Romania.
Today I shall speak briefly of the last 3 amendments (one of which has already been commented upon in the discussion of the necessity of demilitarising the intelligence services).
The first of these amendments concerns article 119 of the Constitution and the introduction of a paragraph providing for the inclusion in the Supreme Council of National Defence of the Presidents of the two chambers of Parliament. At present, the Council includes “as of right the president, the prime minister, the minister of defence, the minister of justice and the heads of the intelligence services.” That is to say, the executive power and its de facto masters — the intelligence services, what I have called the Caste of the Securitate men. This monopoly can and must be broken by introducing the representatives of the two chambers of Parliament among the members as of right of the Council.
This measure, together with the designation, likewise directly by Parliament, of the heads of the intelligence services and the demilitarisation of those services, constitutes the premises of the “de-securitisation” of Romanian society. Without any risk of exaggeration, these measures would constitute the first and true Revolution in Romania.
The second amendment of which we speak today concerns paragraph 1, letters a-d, of article 146 of the Constitution which, although it regulates the powers of the Constitutional Court, the proposed amendments are of a nature to strengthen once again the power of Parliament and, implicitly, democracy and national sovereignty.
Thus, a measure essential for increasing the power of parliament and diminishing the influence of the System in the Romanian state is the reduction of the number of parliamentarians required to refer to the Constitutional Court the possible unconstitutionality of laws, treaties and parliamentary regulations, and also of ordinances and emergency ordinances (the unconstitutionality of these last two kinds of normative act being at present impossible for parliamentarians to refer at all).
Concretely, reducing the number of parliamentarians required to refer a matter to the Court for an *a priori* review of constitutionality from 50 deputies (as provided in the present Constitution) to 20 deputies (in our proposal), and respectively from 25 senators to 10 senators, would constitute the guarantee of an effective review of the constitutionality of normative acts adopted both by Parliament and by the Government. And whereas the reduction of the number of parliamentarians for challenging normative acts before the Court would be a guarantee that the parliamentary opposition can in fact and effectively submit laws to a review of constitutionality, subjecting ordinances and emergency ordinances to the same regime of review following possible referrals made by parliamentarians (and not only by the People’s Advocate or by the courts of law or of commercial arbitration) would mean that normative acts adopted by the executive would in fact be subject to the same rules and rigours as those adopted by Parliament, which would mean a return to normality. In other words, the executive, the Government, would after 33 years lose the unjustified privileges it holds in relation to the legislative power, the power that most faithfully represents the interests of the people.
In proposing all these amendments to Romania’s fundamental law we are attempting to bring into discussion the necessity of transforming Romania from a semi-presidential republic — a republic in which a single man, the President, has a determining position in the state and a dominant position in relation to the powers of the state — into a semi-parliamentary republic, a republic in which, although we shall continue to elect our President directly, effective and pre-eminent power will belong to Parliament.
I know, you will tell me “Parliament is not popular!” Or, “look at the parliamentarians of today”. I know… but that is merely the effect of the defective manner in which the institutional and state architecture was designed by the present Constitution.
Therefore my answer is a simple one: until we become aware of the fundamental importance of Parliament and give it the pre-eminence it deserves, we shall not live in a democracy!
Moreover, so long as we place the emphasis upon the President and upon his election, and leave the reins of the state in the hands of a single man, we cannot claim either that we are “democrats” or even that our interests are represented. Do you not believe me? Remember the names of the Presidents the people has elected, and what they did for the people.
That is why we must have the courage to discuss openly, without evasions, and to seek solutions together. We! Not they!
That is why we ask you to take part yourselves in this so necessary debate (DO NOT FORGET — on 08.02.2023 we meet at the Café for the Nation, Str. Petru Cercel no. 1, District 4, Bucharest) and we await your comments and proposals on the version put forward for debate, and your proposals for amending the Constitution, on the Telegram channel https://t.me/+W-oH4Yyxi9pjNTE0.
Read all the amendments (so far) proposed for debate at https://t.me/DanMVChiticNecenzurat/2018.
#ForTheNation
#ToTheVeryEnd
#WeWriteTogether
#TheConstitutionForTheNation
#theThirdRepublic!
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