PM Orban announces that OUG will be issued if CCR rules legislation on state of alert unconstitutional

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban announced on Saturday that if the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) rules the legislation on the state of alert unconstitutional, the Government will issue an emergency ordinance.

"We will issue a regulation such as an emergency ordinance that will give the Government and the Romanian authorities the necessary tools to be able to defend the life and health of Romanian citizens. I do not think we can accept what the CCR is doing together with the so-called Ombudsman. In no other country in Europe has something like this happened, that the authorities, through a referral to and a ruling of the CCR, be practically deprived of the tools allowing them to enforce compliance with the laws, the rules, especially in such a serious situation as the one caused by the coronavirus epidemic," said the prime minister in Targu Mures, when asked what will happen if the CCR rules the legislation on the state of alert unconstitutional.

He argued that the CCR's ruling in the case of fines imposed during the state of emergency was a "call for non-compliance with the Constitution, an instigation to non-compliance with the law and the rules."

"The CCR ruling endangers the life and health of every Romanian. The Court's decision shows that these people who have lost all connection with the reality of the Romanian society want to help those who break the law, a minority, and have little respect for those who observe the law, more than 98 percent of the Romanian citizens. (...) The CCR ruling and in general the actions carried out by the PSD [the Social Democratic Party], ALDE [the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats] and Ponta [Pro Romania chairman]'s Ombudsman do nothing but violate the fundamental right of Romanian citizens to life and health," the prime minister said.

Ludovic Orban visited, on Saturday, together with President Klaus Iohannis and the Minister of Health, Nelu Tataru, the COVID-19 Medical Support Unit in Targu Mures.