AUR demands dismissal of IntMin Bode

The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) is demanding that Interior Minister Lucian Bode be dismissed from office, claiming that the serious events of late "revealed the inability of the Ministry of Interior to keep public peace, the rule of law and security."

"Increasingly more frequent deficiencies in ensuring the safety of the public are due to the lack of predictability in the Interior Ministry institutions, a crisis of authority, poor management, chronic shortage of staff and lack of training and experience of police forces. Given all this, AUR considers it necessary for Lucian Bode to be fired. In recent days, several serious events took place that revealed the inability of the Ministry of Interior to keep public peace, the rule of law and the safety of the public," AUR said in a press statement released on Friday, Agerpres reports.

AUR points to recent cases in Giurgiu County, in Bucharest and in Sibiu County.

"A minibus driver was killed very close to the headquarters of the Police, the Prosecutor's Office and the Court of Bolintin Vale, Giurgiu County. A police officer injured two children on the crosswalk. One died and, while he was drawing his last breath, the officer turned the body around with his foot, in a last gesture that synthesises dehumanisation. The Poiana Sibiului police chief was recently arrested after committing crimes for years on end without his superiors in the Interior Ministry taking action," reads an AUR press statement.

AUR also criticises some measures taken by the law enforcement.

"Mr Bode has joined in the humiliation, deprofessionalisation and ridicule of the Romanian police. Taking unfair advantage of the plague, those in power have seriously hijacked the fundamental role of law enforcement, gearing them against their own citizens, through absurd measures, or to missions totally unbecoming for their duties. Police have been forced to hunt unmasked elders or elders vending parsley on the sidewalk, to be guardians of institutions or to check the type and composition of face masks," according to AUR Chairman George Simion.