Cătălin Rădulescu: The “Machinegun MP” takes a shot at the Justice System
With the whole debacle that is the package of anti-reform legislation commonly known as the “Justice Laws” in full swing, and with the laws heading soon to President Iohannis for final approval, it is becoming increasingly hard to pay attention to all but the most visible players in the legislative process. Iordache and his masters, Liviu Dragnea and Călin Popescu Tăriceanu as well as the leaders of the opposition are hogging the spotlight in the battle over anticorruption, and making it hard for others to stand out, even as the end of the legislative session is nearing and MPs are struggling to “pad” their stats for the year. Yet even in this saturated media climate there are some politicians that know how to make a splash. And one of the best examples out there is Lower Chamber of Parliament MP and wannabe gunman Cătălin Rădulescu, who is taking his own shots at anticorruption, shots even his fellow PSD MPs are not ready to back.
Rădulescu is an increasingly visible name on the Romanian political stage. In part due to his gangster-like behavior but mostly due to the fact that he is unafraid of shouting the most abhorrent things to camera or threatening his colleagues in front of the press. This might make Rădulescu seem a fresh and insecure face in politics, but the “Machinegun MP” is an old hand at the dysfunctional Romanian political game.
A medical doctor by training and not a Mafioso as his demeanor would otherwise suggest, Rădulescu boasts of being a ‘revolutionary hero’, both in the press and on his official MP CV. The 1989 Revolution is a subject dear to the MP, who claims to have taken arms in defense of the country, a fact unconfirmed by the authorities who nonetheless issued him a special commendation of merit for his revolutionary activity. But his political struggle did not end with the toppling of the communist regime. Shortly after the revolution he was elected MP in Romania’s first ‘free and fair’ elections where he only served the first interim term of two years. Radulescu stayed active in the political life of his native Argeș county but he did not see another term until 20 years later, in 2012, when he was elected once more to the lower chamber, which he quickly tried to capitalize on by passing “important” legislation, like a law outlawing police speed traps in the country with the most road deaths per capita in the EU (purely coincidentally Rădulescu had had over 40 speeding fines in the previous few years). His legal troubles began shortly after.
Two years later, in 2014, he was under investigation by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) for corruption charges, including bribery and running a business while in office, charges he did not take lightly. Rădulescu threatened the DNA and Attorney General Laura Codruța Kovesi, claiming they are undertaking a “genocide” and promising them “their day will come, from top to bottom”. His threats did little to make his case any better and in 2016 Rădulescu received a suspended sentence of one and a half years for his acts of corruption. The decision was final.
Despite his new status as a convicted felon Rădulescu nonetheless ran for office once more and won thanks to the PSD landslide in 2016. It is with this that his behavior took a clear turn towards the worse. With PSD trying to immediately strong-arm the justice system through the now infamous Emergency Ordinance 13 (OUG 13) and a growing mass of protesters in the streets, Rădulescu took a much less kind stance towards his fellow “revolutionaries” in Victoriei Square. In an interview, Rădulescu proposed firing water cannons at the protesters in the blistering February temperatures. Furthermore, in an even more alarming turn he claimed that he still has a Kalashnikov assault rifle from his days usurping the communist regime, a rifle he would be more than happy to use against the protesters if it came to that. This earned him the “machinegun” nickname as well as an investigation by the authorities, an investigation that quickly ended in Rădulescu losing his gun license.
Rădulescu became a household name once more with the renewed assault on the Justice system in Parliament. With tensions mounting between PSD and opposition, Rădulescu threatened a fellow MP with a beat down in the Transport Committee, claiming he can take USR MP Cătălin Drulă “and his entire crew”. Yet all this hoodlum behavior went almost unnoticed with the mounting crisis in Parliament triggered by Florin Iordache and his “Justice Laws”. Rădulescu, however, had his own views of what justice should look like. Likely trying to pad his record for the 2017 parliamentary session Rădulescu launched his own amendments to the penal codes in late December, amendments approved by his fellow PSD MPs.
The amendments were horrifying, even for a party trying to butcher the Justice System. First of all, Rădulescu’s proposed changes would have made prison sentences of under 3 years, or those given to “elderly” (over 60) or “sick” (bearing a note from their doctor attesting them being “sick”) criminals pointless, as they would all be executed under house arrest. Second, Rădulescu would have made all bribes given or taken on behalf of another legal, as would abuse of office without any material gain. An MP giving a contract to a friend would no longer constitute a crime unless strongly argued in court. In fact, all bribes would be as binding as a contract seeing as the person giving the bribe would have to serve time alongside the person receiving the bribe unless the police and prosecutors had already started an investigation into the case. Basically, a person pressured into giving a bribe could no longer report the bribe to the authorities for fear of jail time, and criminals like Sorin Oprescu would not be in prison.
But perhaps more egregious, Rădulescu would raise the minimum level of prejudice for abuse of office charges to 200.000 euros. When the government had tried imposing a 200.000 lei minimum prejudice (almost five times smaller) in February, the entire country rose in outrage — yet Radulescu cared little about all that. He argued it was all in accordance with a Venice committee requirement, which was, of course, a blatant lie.
Yet it was not even this tragic legal abuse that made even his fellow PSD MPs balk at Rădulescu’s proposal. Instead the last straw was Rădulescu’s casual attempt to legalize workplace sexual abuse.
Rădulescu’s proposal would have eliminated article 299 of the new Penal Code entirely, the article forbidding civil servant and politicians from abusing their office for sexual favors. Without said article, corrupt politicians could simply refuse to do their job or condition certain benefits on them receiving sexual favors in return. Considering Rădulescu’s previous trying to outlaw speed traps because of his receiving too many tickets, one can only wonder what pushed him to try and legalize sexual abuse.
Needless to say that the women MPS in PSD (9 of whom had blindly signed Rădulescu’s proposal, one of whom was on the gender equality committee) and many leaders were astonished when they realized the enormity of the bill. Many refused to acknowledge that they had signed and accused Rădulescu of forging signatures or lying about the bill, others distanced themselves immediately. In fact the whole scandal exploded in the press with such violence, even for a media and society weary after all the legal butchery of the past months, that Rădulescu was forced to quickly withdraw his bill. A small, shameful misfire for Rădulescu, one certain to damage his position within PSD and a small victory for the justice system in Romania.
The battle for the justice system rages on but at least for a while it seems the “machinegun” MP will be firing blanks.
