President Iohannis: I want a well-organised, well-thought-out referendum

President Klaus Iohannis stated on Saturday that the referendum on justice should be "well-organised, well-thought-out" in partnership with the civil society and with political parties "good faith." "In order to give the Romanians their vote back, I started to re-assess the idea of a referendum. Because only in this way, the Romanians can show that they no longer agree with the way in which the PSD [the Social Democratic Party] damages the laws of justice, mocks the country, mocks the Romanians. I have already invited a lot of interested Romanians for the beginning of the next week, whom I will carry out consultations with on the referendum topic, because I want a well-organized, well-thought-out referendum in partnership with the civil society, with the political parties of good faith and together with the Romanians and with you," said the President, who attended the "Mircea Ionescu-Quintus" National Liberal Youth (TNL) Award Gala, which took place in Sinaia. Iohannis argued that the PSD governance has "failed" after the justice laws have been amended and "the entire system was put in difficulty." "I believe that the thing which needs to be done now is to give the Romanians their voice back. Certainly, the basic rule of democracy is that elections are organised and between elections, the one elected to rule the country should rule it. But that means that the one elected to rule is of good faith, it means that the one elected to rule the country leads the country toward the good of the country and the citizens', not for his/her own interest. And when we notice that things are not like that, that they are not so, then, the ordinary citizen should receive an instrument by which to express disapproval. That instrument is a also a vote," he added. Iohannis also voiced disapproval of the previous PSD governments, pointing out that Social-Democrats have been at the head of the country for the greatest number of years after the Revolution. "The PSD governance and I am not talking about this last government, a government that I labeled as an accident of democracy, we are not talking about this, but about the entire PSD governance! The entire PSD governance has failed. And, my dears, it is not the first one. Over the past 30 years, since the Revolution, the PSD has been in power for many years. Because of the PSD, Romania hasn't developed more, because of the PSD, Romania hasn't developed better. Meanwhile, the Romanians realised that it cannot work like that anymore. Now, we have the possibility to show that it doesn't work anymore. We have elections to the European Parliament.We have, hint the European Parliament elections, a very good team at the PNL [the National Liberal Party]. I have seen this team, I was invited several days ago to a great event organised by the PNL for the European People's Party. There, I have seen the PNL team, a very strong team," the President argued. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - editor: Rodica State)