Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) denied the rumor that former prime minister Viorica Dancila, who runs against president Klaus Iohannis in the second round of the presidential elections on Sunday, November 24, will be called in for questioning on Friday, two days before the vote.

“Regarding the information conveyed in the public space that accredits the idea that a candidate for the Presidency of Romania is to be cited to the DNA, on November 22, 2019, the Public Relations Office is empowered to state that all this information is FALSE (they actually used caps for this word – e.n.),” reads a note published by the DNA on Thursday.

DNA’s reaction came after some local media reported that Viorica Dancila would be called to the DNA headquarters in Bucharest on Friday to be heard in a corruption case apparently related to a state financing for the Bucharest Open women’s tennis tournament.

Update: Viorica Dancila held another press conference on Thursday evening, during which journalists asked to comment on the "false information" that she would be called to DNA on Friday. "It's only half fake. I will explain immediately. I said a few days ago that all those who ran against Iohannis were targeted by criminal investigations. Following the first round, on November 15, a complaint was filed against me. DNA said they wouldn't call me tomorrow, but not that they wouldn't call me on Monday, Tuesday or some other time. I will surely be invited to the DNA following this complaint. Probably many of Iohannis's team would have wanted me to be called tomorrow, or even Sunday so that there wouldn't be any vote," Dancila said, according to G4Media.ro.

Local tabloid Libertatea reported on Thursday that the representative of a tennis association in Craiova, whose name is Napoleon Tudor Spartacus Iacov, filed a criminal complaint to the DNA against the current management of the Romanian Tennis Federation (FRT), where billionaire Ion Tiriac is now president, also targeting former PM Viorica Dancila, former finance minister Eugen Teodorovici, former sports minister Bogdan Matei, and three other people. In short, Iacob claims that the Government illegally allocated USD 340,000 from its reserve fund to pay the annual fee for organizing the Bucharest Open. The complaint was filed on November 15. However, Libertatea doesn't say anything about a DNA investigation targeting Tiriac or Dancila at this moment.

The whole scandal comes after former PM Viorica Dancila suggested on Tuesday that she expected to be called in for questioning by the DNA before the second round of the elections and accused president Klaus Iohannis of interfering with justice. Dancila also asked Iohannis last week to come up with explanations after Liberal MEP Rares Bodgan, one of the president’s close collaborators, said that DNA should come and take the Dancila-Teodorovici pair, according to Digi24.ro.

What do Dancila, Iohannis, and justice have in common?

Dancila, who was elected president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) this summer, after former leader Liviu Dragnea was sentenced to jail for corruption, asked all her party members, including the justice minister, to stop talking publicly about justice. She thus tried to break from her predecessor’s strategy who started a quest against the DNA and accused the anticorruption prosecutors of answering to political orders given by a so-called “shadow state”, which allegedly included members of the secret services and even president Iohannis.

Under Dragnea, PSD also tried to change the justice laws and the criminal codes and limit the powers of prosecutors, in order to defend the citizens’ rights, but many saw this as an attempt to protect the corrupt politicians in his party. Thus, PSD’s initiatives in the justice area sparked massive street protests and critics from Romania’s international partners, culminating in a very negative report issued by the European Commission this year under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).

When asked about her party's initiatives in the justice area, during a press conference on Tuesday, Dancila tried to shift the responsibility to the Parliament and the party's leadership team. She also said that the media shouldn't try to pin on her the emergency ordinances on justice in January 2017, which started the whole dispute around this subject, as she was only a member of the European Parliament back then.

President Iohannis, who tried to block PSD’s ordinances and laws in the justice area, has used this theme to attack PSD and its candidate, Viorica Dancila, during the presidential campaign this year. He presented himself as the last stand in front of PSD’s assault on justice and rule of law in Romania.

Fake news and misinformation campaign

The news about Dancila being called for questioning just before the elections on Sunday comes close to the end of a presidential campaign marked by fake news and misinformation, with many of the false messages reported by the local media as originating from the PSD.

The former PM’s party has been reportedly distributing a letter signed by Dancila herself in which the PSD candidate tells people that Iohannis will take their last money for food or medicines. “These elections are about what we will put on the table tomorrow,” Dancila says in the leaflet, according to Digi24.ro.

“I, Viorica Dăncilă and the Social Democratic Party, will never cease to fight for a better tomorrow, in which no Romanian will be afraid that Iohannis and his folks will take the last money for food or medicine,” the leaflet reads.

The second round of the presidential elections in Romania takes place on Sunday, November 24. The vote in the Diaspora starts on Friday. President Klaus Iohannis, who won the second round, competes against former PM Viorica Dancila. Here are the profiles of the two candidates:

Who is Viorica Dancila, the former PM running to become Romania’s first woman-president?

Who is Klaus Iohannis, the president who hopes to win another term?

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Dreamstime.com)