Timișoara mayor Dominic Fritz will remain in office but have his salary reduced by 10% for six months following a final court ruling that found him in an administrative conflict of interest, Timiș prefect Paul Finta announced on Tuesday, August 4. The sanction has sparked a new political dispute between USR and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), with Fritz accusing the Social Democrats of campaigning to remove him from office and PSD arguing that his mandate should have been terminated.

In June, Romania's High Court of Cassation and Justice upheld a Timișoara Court of Appeal ruling that found Dominic Fritz in an administrative conflict of interest.

“I signed the order applying the disciplinary sanction of reducing the allowance by 10% for a period of six months to Dominic Fritz, the mayor of Timișoara," Paul Finta said at a press conference, according to News.ro.

The Timiș prefect further stated that he had requested an opinion from the National Integrity Agency (ANI) but had not received a response. He also pointed to an ANI announcement saying the agency currently has 122 conflict-of-interest cases under consideration and that none has resulted in the termination of a mayor's mandate.

Dominic Fritz, the president of Save Romania Union (USR), who remains in office following the prefect's decision, reacted by saying he accepted the sanction but maintained that the case against him was unfair.

“I take note of this sanction with my head held high. The law and justice are not always the same thing," Fritz wrote on Facebook.

According to the mayor, the conflict-of-interest finding concerns his decision to submit for a vote in the Timișoara Local Council an urban zoning plan, or PUZ, that had been drafted entirely before he took office. 

Fritz then accused PSD of conducting a campaign against him and the mandate he received from Timișoara voters. “The campaign carried out by PSD, which controls ANI and part of the judiciary, against the vote of Timișoara residents for mayor has become far too obvious," he said.

Dominic Fritz also argued that a PSD prefect in Timiș County had imposed the same sanction - a reduction in salary - on the PSD mayor of Recaș in 2023 after the latter was found in a conflict of interest. He further accused the Social Democrats of now seeking to change the law to introduce the termination of a mayor's mandate as a sanction in such cases.

PSD responded by challenging the prefect's interpretation of the law and calling on ANI and the Interior Ministry to contest his order before an administrative court, Agerpres reported.

The Social Democrats argued that Fritz's mandate should have ended following the final court ruling and accused USR representatives of attempting to protect their party leader from the legal consequences of the conflict-of-interest finding.

PSD cited a 2020 High Court decision which, according to the party's interpretation, establishes that the mandates of local elected officials definitively found to be incompatible or in a conflict of interest terminate by operation of law.

“PSD asks the National Integrity Agency and the Interior Ministry to urgently intervene against this abuse and challenge the Timiș prefect's illegal order before the administrative court," the party said, as quoted by Agerpres.

The party also called on prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into USR representatives over what it described as the abusive use of public offices to shield Fritz from the sanctions it believes should apply.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Virgil Simonescu)