President Iohannis: After second conviction, Dragnea should purely disappear from Romania's public life

Social Democrat Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea, "after the second conviction, should purely disappear from Romania's public life," President Klaus Iohannis said in Sibiu on Saturday.

"I have voiced my opinion much too many times about these matters to expect Dragnea to take into account what I am conveying to him via media. I still believe he should withdraw from politics for good. Therefore, Dragnea, after his second conviction, should purely disappear from Romania's public life. This is what would happen in absolutely any country in the world, even in one with an incipient democracy. The fact that this doesn't happen here entails two aspects - that Dragnea won't withdraw, he won't withdraw. This is how he thinks. However, the part which I find even more serious is that the PSD doesn't realize that they must send Dragnea home, that, in fact, we are now in a completely inappropriate and misfortunate stage when an entire party and the biggest party in Romania is turning into a pressure group or a lobby group for an offender," Iohannis said.

Liviu Dragnea was sentenced, by a first court, to 3 years and 6 months in jail in the DGASPC Teleorman case. The Deputies' Chamber Speaker, Liviu Dragnea, announced on Friday he would not resign from the Chamber leadership office or the PSD chairmanship.