Toni Greblă, a former senator and Constitutional Court (CCR) judge, is to be appointed the Government’s secretary general, Liviu Dragnea, the president of the Social Democrat Party (PSD), announced.

“The post of the secretary general of the government is the responsibility of the PSD. After Mr. [Mihai] Busuioc left, the position was taken over by a deputy. The prime minister told me she wishes to appoint Mr. Greblă. I had a talk with him. Tomorrow [e.n. Monday, September 24] it will happen. I think this is a very good solution. He is a very well prepared, very valuable individual,” Dragnea said in a TV show at Antena 3, quoted by News.ro.

This May, the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ÎCCJ) acquitted Greblă of all the accusations in a 2015 influence peddling case. According to the prosecutors, Greblă allegedly requested and received from businessman Ion Bîrcină goods and services to help him obtain contracts in the energy and scrap iron transport areas. The decision of the ÎCCJ is not final.

Andreea Lambru is currently the Government’s secretary general.

At the same TV show, the PSD leader spoke of the need for amnesty, be it as an ordinance or as a law. He also explained that he did not consider amnesty a form of clemency but one of justice for all those who have been victims of abuses.

“Be it next year, in two years, such a law needs to pass because I do not think another juridical instrument can be invented to allow those that were convicted but are innocent to escape this misfortune. Just as a fiscal amnesty needs to be granted. Not for the thieves to escape payment, we are talking about companies that cannot attend bids. There is a blockage. There are companies that entered insolvency in order to avoid paying the damages made to the Romanian state. I really believed in it [e.n. the fiscal amnesty],” he said, quoted by Mediafax.

No court can withstand the pressures that exist to have him put in jail, Dragnea also said. This June, Dragnea was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in an abuse of office case. The court decision is not final.

The issue of an amnesty law has been on and off on the public agenda in the past years. At the beginning of 2017, then justice minister Florin Iordache said “the idea of discussing such a law in the Parliament is auspicious.” Then, both president Klaus Iohannis and general prosecutor Augustin Lazăr opposed the initiative. In July of this year, Dragnea denied an emergency ordinance on pardoning and amnesty was on the Government's agenda, after media reports that he had been pushing for it. Meanwhile, finance minister Eugen Teodorovici said the Government would decide this year on a tax amnesty.

During the Antena 3 interview, Dragnea defended his girlfriend, Irina Tănase, against rumors that she allegedly calls ministries to request things. “They say about Irina, my girlfriend.. that she runs the Government. I heard it today. There are some ladies who call various ministries and say ‘I am Irina’ and request various things,” Dragnea said, quoted by Digi24.ro.

Romania’s ruling party leader manages to keep his seat

editor@romania-insider.com