On Monday, the National Antidiscrimination Council (CNCD) postponed, for March 26, the debate on the notice against the “lawbreakers” label used by President Klaus Iohannis and the “defendants” label used by DNA Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi.
All the parties were procedurally subpoenaed for Monday, March 12, and presented their points of view.
“The meeting in what concerns the complaints against the Romanian President and the DNA Chief Prosecutor will resume on March 26. The responding parties have lodged points of view, while the complainant, Razvan Savaliuc, has supplemented his petition. Procedurally, the complainant has received the points of view of the Presidency and of the DNA,” CNCD President Asztalos Csaba stated for the MEDIAFAX press agency.
The notice was lodged with the CNCD by the www.luju.ro website (Lumea Justitiei) in February, and concerns President Klaus Iohannis’s and DNA Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi’s use of the labels “lawbreakers” and “defendants” respectively, during press conferences, when describing those who “are attacking the judiciary.”
More precisely, the petition lodged by Lumea Justitiei editor Razvan Savaliuc refers to the press conference that took place at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace on February 15, in which President Iohannis stated, among other things, that “some lawbreakers are making a desperate attempt to attack and discredit the DNA,” and to the press conference that took place at the DNA headquarters on February 14, in which Laura Codruta Kovesi talked, among other things, about “defendants who level false accusations” and about “a desperate festival of defendants.”
Liberal Chairman Orban says discrimination complaints against President Iohannis, anti-corruption head Kovesi ungrounded
Chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL) Ludovic Orban (photo) said on Monday that the complaints filed with the National Council for the Combat of Discrimination (CNCD) regarding the use by President Klaus Iohannis and Chief Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruta Kovesi, respectively, of the syntagms “legally embattled” and “defendants” are ungrounded.
“Regarding the term ‘defendants’, this is the standard term used to refer to a person sent to court. As for ‘legally embattled’, the concept in itself signifies having law issues or having violated the law. I don’t consider the use of these terms is a form of discrimination whatsoever,” Ludovic Orban told RFI.
Whereas he defended the use of such lingo in the said cases, stressing that there is no justification for the filed complaints, Orban mentioned that PM Viorica Dancila’s recent ‘autism’ statement was discriminating against people suffering from autistic spectrum disorders.
“Now, about the National Council for the Combat of Discrimination. How does the use of these terms represent a discrimination? Whereas in the case of Social Democrat Premier Viorica Vasilica Dancila, the use of the term autist with pejorative connotations was indeed discriminating against the persons suffering from autism, in these two cases the complaints are not in the least justified,” Orban said.
