Dragnea on criminal complaint against PM: Unconstitutional demarche, an attempted coup d'état

Chamber of Deputies' Speaker Liviu Dragnea said on Thursday that the criminal complaint made by the Liberals' leader Ludovic Orban against Prime Minister Viorica Dancila is actually the "operationalization of the threat" made by President Klaus Iohannis, being an unconstitutional demarche, an attempted coup d'état."

"It is a criminal complaint by Klaus Werner Iohannis. Orban is a pitiful tool. It was not his mind that decided that it is but the operationalization of Mr. Iohannis' threat against Prime Minister Viorica Dancila. When I said on Monday that it is a mafia-like threat, he contradicted me. Reality proves that I was right. You are not doing what you are being told, we are filing a criminal complaint and we are sending you to the political police," Dragnea said in Parliament.

He said Orban's demarche is unconstitutional.

"This is a demarche which means an attempted coup d'état, namely taking power illegitimately, because that has always been in view. Mr. Iohannis, having experience with the six houses, wants to take the Victoria Palace for his own use. I also say that there is an article in the Criminal Code that refers to misleading the judicial bodies and making a criminal complaint claiming some alleged facts that would violate the criminal law knowing that they are untrue is an offense punishable with imprisonment," Dragnea said.

"I also want everyone to understand that any person and any public servant who will continue to get involved in this demarche will actually be an accomplice to these two possible offenses. It is the same desire, the same plan, with other instruments, as the one in 2015, namely to take over the government without winning the election, by Iohannis and his political tools," added Liviu Dragnea.

He also said that the current government will not give up and that the prime minister has total support.

"There is no grain of truth in that criminal complaint. We have spoken with legal advisers and we are seriously thinking about making criminal complaints against those who carry out such demarches," Dragnea said.