Liviu Dragnea — “Daddy’s” Long-Awaited Reprieve
There are few people in Romania who have accumulated as much political power as Liviu Dragnea. The leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Romania’s biggest party and one if not the most corrupt, Dragnea propelled PSD to new electoral heights, solidifying his status as the party’s all-powerful “Daddy” (a term Dragnea himself used in a series of leaked texts). Dragnea’s control of the party is so complete that several risky moves were undertaken by the PSD apparatus allegedly on his behalf, ranging from the emergency ordinance that nearly ignited a civil insurrection, through the toppling of PSDs own government and to new and controversial legislation.
While Dragnea’s influence over the PSD is near-absolute, he still rules the country not from the Prime Minister’s seat but as majority leader and the head of the Chamber of Deputies. This is because despite his political acumen and control of the party, Liviu Dragnea has one Achillean weakness. He is a convicted felon. “Daddy” was convicted of influence trafficking in the referendum affair where he used his office as Minister of Public Administration to influence results. Dragnea may look like he got off lightly, with a suspended sentence of two years, but this suspended sentence is a heavy political burden to carry. For one, convicted felons cannot be named Prime Minister or Minister, something Romania’s President, theoretically apolitical but in truth representing the last major opposition power in the country (the National Liberal Party, PNL), is adamant about. Drawing on a Constitutional Court decision stating that felons cannot serve as appointed officials, Iohannis has reiterated his staunch refusal to appoint Dragnea, and something the PSD “Daddy” is still seething about.
There is, however, a second, greater problem for Dragnea. The 2 year suspended sentence is only one of his corruption cases, with a second, repeatedly delayed by the courts. A sentence in this second case would prove politically fatal to Dragnea despite his extensive influence, as it would immediately trigger the suspended sentence and put him behind bars. So it is perhaps no wonder that Dragnea is doing his utmost to fight it.
We have not written about Liviu Dragnea before, partly because it is hard to find a place to start. From his ties to a company accused of embezzling millions of infrastructure money to his alleged properties in Brazil to his family’s pig farm and (of course) football team there are so many angles to Dragnea’s dealings that it is hard to entangle his web of corruption and influence.
But writing about Liviu Dragnea has suddenly become a lot easier. Last week, the courts decided that, due to a judge hitting the retirement age, the whole case — where Dragnea and his ex-wife Bombonica (Candy) are accused of using public funds to pay off PSD party members — will have to be retried from scratch. This is a highly irregular event, and a clear delaying tactic.
Strangely enough for a Romanian corruption case, the benefits reaped by Dragnea and Bombonica are more political than monetary. They stand accused of pressuring several people in the Teleorman administrative apparatus to commit fraud and pay people for work not being done. While Dragnea was County Council President in his home county of Teleorman (coincidentally one of Romania’s least developed regions) he seems to have pressured the head of the local branch of the Child Welfare Office (DGASPC) to hire two new employees. These two employees, hired in 2005 and 2006 within the Child Welfare service never set foot in their offices, working instead directly for Dragnea in political capacities at the PSD Teleorman headquarters.The DNA opened the case in July 2016, to a chorus of protests of PSD politicians and the case moved rather quickly through the courts. Ever since the PSD secured victory in the December 2016 parliamentary elections, however, the case seems to have mysteriously slowed down, before being promptly sent for retrial on shaky grounds.
Dragnea’s lawyers used the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (namely the Cutean vs Romania and Beraru vs Romania cases), which state that the same lineup of judges has to sit on a case from beginning to end — a kind of legal equivalent of “don’t change horses midstream”. While this seems like a very legitimate principle, it does contradict other ECHR motivations and is a narrow interpretation at best. In the same Cutean vs Romania case, the Court adds that “However, [the ban on changing judges during the proceedings] cannot be deemed to constitute a prohibition of any change in the composition of a court during the course of a case (see P.K. v. Finland,cited above). Very clear administrative or procedural factors may arise rendering a judge’s continued participation in a case impossible. Measures can be taken to ensure that the judges who continue hearing the case have the appropriate understanding of the evidence and arguments […]”. Worse, invoking this precedent throws the entire Romanian legal system into disarray. Other famous cases ranging from Dragnea ally and Senate Head Calin Popescu Tăriceanu to Sebastian Ghiță might have to be retried as well, gridlocking the Romanian push against corruption.
And if even the retrial fails to get Dragnea off, he has another ace up his sleeve also involving the ECHR. He has publicly stated that he intends on taking his first conviction, in the Referendum case all the way to the ECHR and get it overturned. So Dragnea might either escape a second conviction at the last court of appeals, strong-arm the legal system into an acquittal or, if that fails, he might seek his luck at the ECHR with his first suspended sentence. For now, all Dragnea has is a reprieve but if things go his way, or can be made to go his way, it seems Daddy has one eye set on the PM seat and the other on the justice system.
Difficult times lie ahead for Romania’s anti-corruption crusaders.
