PSD-ALDE protest: ALDE's Tariceanu: We live in controlled democracy; we are fighting parallel state

Senate President and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) leader Calin Popescu Tariceanu on Saturday said at the PSD [Social Democratic Party, major at rule, ed.n]-ALDE protest in Victoria Square that there is currently in Romania "a controlled democracy", "the parallel state" being omnipresent in politics, in the economy, in mass-media and in Justice. 

"I came here today today to meet with those who still believe that Romania must remain free, democratic and independent, with those who believe that Romania is a sovereign country, that Romanians deserve deserve to live freely with their rights and liberties protected, without being humiliated when they unnerve a prosecutor or a powerful person. I came here today at the protest to call out that justices must be left to decide freely, without protocols and secret agreements," the ALDE leader said. 

According to him, democracy does not survive on its own, it must be helped, encouraged and defended. 

"But we see today that Romania's dream off freedom has not been fully fulfilled. We have unfortunately been living, as you well know, in a controlled democracy for over ten years, after the last 2014 elections. We are fighting a phenomenon that threatens our democracy, our independence and liberty and this is the parallel state, omnipresent in politics, in economy, in the mass-media and in Justice. I notice today that after 1989 our hopes that democracy has definitively set in in Romania have not been fulfilled and we must continue to fight until the healthy force of the legitimate democratic institutions, elected by you, these citizens of Romania will defeat the ill, obscure forces, the forces of darkness, the occult forces that have gotten hold of this country. We must reclaim our freedom!" Tariceanu said in his speech in front of the protest participants. 

He underscored that a real democracy means respecting free elections and remarked that there is the risk for "the parallel state, the mafia state to be proclaimed." 

"Do you want to live again in a police state in which one in three Romanians are under surveillance? (...) Are you by any chance Romania's enemies? Are you by any chance a threat to Romania? Tariceanu rhetorically asked those present at the protest. After protesters in the square denied, the ALDE leader said: "Then explain to me what were SRI [Romanian Intelligence Service, ed.n.] and DNA [National Anticorruption Directorate, ed.n.] thinking to transform us all in targets and hunt us down, instead of hunting Romania's true enemies? How do you explain that Kovesi [DNA head, ed.n.] has become more important than the Constitution, than our right to a fair and correct process, for the respect of individual rights and for the presumption of innocence? I am convinced you will not accept after 25 years to say that the Securitate [secret police, ed.n.] so feared under the communism is not dead, but it has merely transformed itself. It wishes to regain power, more insidious and more dangerous than it used to be. It obviously no longer has the Russian tanks behind, but is has infiltrated itself step by step. We know all too well, the 'step-by step' system is wiretapping our phones, is following us even when we fight back, it does everything it can to see us in jail," the ALDE leader maintained.