CSM notifies Prosecution over threats received by magistrates, blames politicians for fomenting defamation campaign

The Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) announced on Wednesday that it filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General's Office following several threat messages received by magistrates on social media, and stressed that the ongoing "defamation" of the magistrates "is fueled by the political factor".

The CSM has notified the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice about the crime of public incitement, asking that investigations be conducted into several public messages by social media users who call for serious crimes against magistrates and their families.

According to the cited source, the campaign to turn the citizens against the body of magistrates continues and "is fueled by the political factor".

"In this vein, the prime minister of Romania recently stated again, that the magistrates' salaries amount to a monthly 4,000 - 5,000 euros net, and magistrates retire at 48 - 49 years of age in Romania," the Council specifies.

The CSM argues that as regards the gross and net income of a judge at the beginning of their career, data communicated by 27 states shows that Romania ranks 20th, similar to Lithuania, and in the states positioned immediately above - specifically Poland and Bulgaria - they take home roughly 20-30% more.

"Court judges account for 45% of the total positions in the national judicial corps, and 49% of the total number of prosecutors work at prosecutor's offices attached to courts. The net pay of a court judge or prosecutor with a court prosecutor's office stands between RON 6,990 net for a trainee, RON 10,486 net in the first years of their career, and after 20 years of service, it gets to RON 16,157 net at the court or at the prosecutor's office attached to the court. The salary of judges with tribunal rank and prosecutors at the prosecutor's offices attached to tribunals is 11% higher than that for the court level, and that of judges serving on appellate courts or of prosecutors serving on prosecutor's offices attached to appellate courts is 13% higher than for tribunal level," the CSM said.

Regarding the service pension, the Council argues that there are over 215,000 service pensions in Romania today, of which only around 5,000 are those collected by magistrates, so that this professional category accounts for a maximum 4% of the total service pensions, although they are constantly presented as the main burden on the public pension system.

Regarding the amount of the service pension, the CSM shows that Law No. 282/2023 has corrected previous anomalies, so that the service pension established according to this regulatory act no longer exceeds the net current salary.

Also, according to the CSM, the retirement age of Romanian magistrates is currently 60 according to Law No. 282/2023, and it has increased in stages.

"Contrary to constantly disseminated inaccurate claims, in the first part of 2025, the average retirement age for judges remained at 52, compared to over 58 in the period of maximum legislative stability that was 2010-2011," the CSM emphasizes.

As for the average retirement age for prosecutors, the statistical data already publicly presented by the Council shows that this is approximately 55 in the period 2010 - 2025, and 56 for judges in the same time interval, far from 47-48 as falsely and repeatedly claimed.

The CSM concludes with yet another warning against the escalation of hostile public attitudes towards judges and prosecutors, which risk affecting the independence of justice and directly undermine the fundamental rights and freedoms of the citizens and the democratic course of Romanian society.