Romanian opposition party wants to remove convicts from public office

The Save Romania Union (USR) opposition party wants people who received a final prison sentence banned from public office. The party will start gathering signatures for a citizen initiative meant to change the country’s Constitution. It wants to gather half a million signatures, in a citizen initiative the size of which “would not be ignored in the Parliament,” according to the USR. “In less than a year from elections, we’ve reached an unprecedented situation: the Government is bullying the Romanian state, both on justice and economic matters,” said the USR newly elected president Dan Barna. “Romania would not be where it is now if the state would have not been led by people with justice issues,” he added, referring to Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Chamber of Deputies. Dragnea received a two-year suspended prison sentence for having tempered with a referendum in 2009. USR now calls on civic association to join in the initiative that would remove for public administration, Parliament and Presidency citizen with final jail sentences for offenses with intent. The Senate recently rejected an USR initiative to ban people with final convictions from becoming president. editor@romania-insider.com