Presidential spokesperson Madalina Dobrovolschi said Tuesday that a government emergency ordinance regulating the Interior Ministry’s General Directorate Internal Protection (DGPI) is a demarche with a political stake that worries the soundness of the rule of law because it eliminates the need for the appointment and dismissal of the DGPI head to be approved by the Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT).
“This is a demarche with a political stake, a new action that is part of a wider plan to abridge the powers of the President. We saw the same kind of action in the ANCOM case and we discussed then that emergency ordinance which urgency could not be justified. Senate’s vote yesterday virtually allows the DGPI management to be selected by a minister, without the approval of the CSAT and , implicitly of the President. And yet, we are talking about an authority that plays an important part in national defence and security,” Dobrovolschi told a news conference at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.
She added that under Romania’s Constitution, the President is the commander-in-chief of the country’s armies, arguing that the presence of the chief of state in the decision-making process of any organisation that is part of the armed forces is important.
Asked whether the Presidential Administration is considering filing an objection with the Constitutional Court over this matter, the spokesperson said that the President will provide more details when required by the procedures.
At a plenary session on Monday, the Senate passed, as the decision-making chamber, an emergency ordinance regulating the Interior Ministry’s General Directorate Internal Protection (DGPI) with an amendment from the Defence Committee providing for the appointment and dismissal of the DCPI head by the interior minister.
