The May 26 elections for the EU Parliament were a defeat for the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) and not a victory of the opposition parties, Romanian PM Viorica Dăncilă told The Guardian.

Dăncilă told the British newspaper that the PSD can turn things around as the party got the message from the electorate and abandoned talks about the justice reform. She asked her colleagues in the party’s parliamentary groups to stop talking publicly about justice shortly after the EU Parliament elections.

“I would like to go back to the agenda that is focused on the citizen, less on the justice system,” she told The Guardian.

On the topic of Laura Codruța Kovesi’s appointment as the top European public prosecutor, Dăncilă argued that the former head of Romania’s Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) should solve her issues with the justice system” before taking on the job since “the Romanian image will be affected and I want my country’s image to be very good,” she said.

On the relationship with the former PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who is now serving a jail sentence, Dăncilă argued he did not interfere with the Government’s activity. “The prime minister runs the government … Mr Dragnea wasn’t coming here to the government, or providing indications to the government,” she said. For many, Dăncilă was appointed PM as Dragnea was not unable to take on the job because of a conviction for electoral fraud.

The Romanian PM also made the case for Romania joining the Schengen area. The country has met all the technical criteria since 2011 but political decisions are preventing the accession, she argued. She also mentioned the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), arguing that if it “would be valid for all member states then I wouldn’t be speaking about a double standard.”

The full article in the online edition of The Guardian can be read here.

(Photo: gov.ro)

editor@romania-insider.com