Why is President Iohannis still holding Bode-the plagiarist in his arms?

It is incomprehensible why President Klaus Iohannis, the promoter of „educated Romania”, the one who proclaimed „zero tolerance towards plagiarism”, still holds in his arms the Minister of the Interior, Lucian Bode, in whose case the Ethics Commission of Babes-Bolyai University has pronounced a clear verdict of plagiarism, i.e. intellectual theft.  The commission found on Wednesday 11 January that „the thesis is deeply flawed”. For a week, Bode has been clinging to his position, playing the victim, accusing the USR of imaginary plots, and launching ridiculous legal actions to defend what cannot be defended. Plagiarism is plagiarism, already proven with clear evidence by journalist Emilia Șercan. Bode stole the work of others when he wrote his doctoral thesis to the tune of about 18%, according to Șercan in the investigation published by the presssone.

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă, himself accused of plagiarism, has no interest in forcing the interior minister to resign so as not to shoot himself in the foot. The common vulnerability condemns Ciucă and Bode to make intellectual theft a virtue, a condition of their presence in government. If you haven’t stolen even one page in your life as a doctor, you have no place in Victoria Palace. So the solidarity between plagiarists is understandable, if one leaves, the position of the other will automatically be called into question.

However, how come President Iohannis tolerates proven plagiarism, confirmed by a team of experts from a prestigious university such as the UBB? How does one explain his complicity in theft, be it intellectual, but still called theft? What links him so closely to Bode? The BMW affair? Is he afraid that if he forces his resignation, the Minister of the Interior might talk? What does Bode know? How did the President’s friend win a contract with the Romanian Police for the purchase of 600 BMWs worth almost 100 million lei (20 million euros)? As long as the President does not explain his „maximum tolerance” for plagiarism, although he promised „zero tolerance”, such suspicions are perfectly legitimate. There has to be an explanation for the president’s carelessness.

Some might say that the President is silent as he has been on numerous occasions when he has delayed an otherwise predictable outcome for months. Just two examples: the case of Câmpeanu, the former education minister also accused of plagiarism, or the Hossu case at the DIICOT, with a husband convicted of corruption. In both cases he slept in his slippers for months, just like now, until the bomb exploded in his face. Indolence? Stupidity? Guilty complicity? Gross indifference to the problems of government? He should tell us. Of course, the President could also justify himself as follows: my back is against the wall, I have no solutions. If Bode leaves the government, does he also leave the post of PNL secretary general? If I open this precedent, I run the risk of losing Prime Minister Ciucă and the leader of the PNL, and the whole thing collapses. Klaus Iohannis has no one to put in their place, neither in government nor in the party.

This is what happens when you build something on lies, on falsehoods, with puppets. At some point, the edifice of power built on a shaky foundation collapses. Bode should have left since the Schengen failure, another vast operation to beautify reality. We see the effects today: The DNA picks up customs officers accused of corruption in Romanian customs by the dozens. The corruption in the customs, which the Minister of the Interior swept under the rug and politically negotiated with the European Commission false reports on how well Romania’s borders are protected, has spilled over. The rot in Romania was seen in the cohorts of migrants landing in Austria, because of whom we missed out on entry to the free movement area. In the latest file the Anticorruption Directorare is targeting employees at customs and border crossings suspected of taking bribes of between €20 and €250 to facilitate the illegal passage of Moldovan citizens who wanted to reach Germany. Were these vast networks of corruption created yesterday? Just for the patronage of the theft at the customs, Bode, this thieve of letters, should already be in the political dustbin.

Others may say that President Iohannis is keeping quiet just because it’s ski season. Wrong. Snow only exists in pictures. The way the weather looks, with 20 degrees outside in January, another explanation could be: the golf season has opened at Pianu. All jokes aside, the sad truth is that we have a president who has for years been the patron of a catastrophic system in which counter-selection has become the rule, in which low-grade politicians populate the government and the party in critical mass and in which society is under a media anaesthesia. The big parties have bought the press with cash so as not to question for a moment the widespread sham. This is where we really get to the root of the problem. We are in a vicious circle. As long as there is no pressure from public opinion, neither President Iohannis nor Prime Minister Ciucă feels obliged to take action. The Bode problem only exists in a small bubble. Outside it, in the media space perfectly controlled by the moneyed-greased TV stations, there is total silence. And democracies, we already know, die in silence.

The best proof that this is the case is that even when a small opposition party like the USR calls on Minister Bode to resign, the bought-up TV stations quickly turn the message around and make Minister Bode the victim of the „resisters”. The resisters continue their assault on power. New revelations emerge from the campaign to denigrate members of the government, especially the Minister of the Interior, Lucian Bode. The Association Voices for Democracy and Justice announces that it is filing a criminal complaint against Minister Bode”, writes Romania TV in a delirious text intended to defend the Minister of the Interior. In September 2022, Recorder revealed that Romania TV had created with the money it received from the PNL a real „custom-made journalism factory” and how there had been situations in which „even eight paid news stories were published on the RTV website in a single day.”

In this infernal mechanism of a propaganda rigged society, Lucian Bode will never feel the need to leave and will cling to power at any cost. So does Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă, with the plagiarism hatchet hanging over his head, or other impostors in the government. Defiance. There is a certain solidarity of mediocrities who support and promote each other. Except that the lie cannot go on forever, just as it did not go on for Florin Roman, Sorin Câmpeanu or other plagiarists. Bode’s resignation is inevitable, he can no longer be saved by anyone, it is only a matter of time. With zero authority and legitimacy in the Government, Silviu Mănăstire’s protector in the PNL, Bode’s days are numbered. He has not coped with the position of secretary general in the PNL, internal discontent is growing, communication with the local branches is minimal.  Bode is silent when his protégé, Mănăstire, is accused of domestic violence or threatening and verbally assaulting other liberals. A complicit, unacceptable silence. With each day of prolonged agony, the image of the PNL and the government loses a few more percentage points.

Yet why is President Klaus Iohannis holding him in his arms? Why hasn’t he taken a stand so far and what is he waiting for to make the air in his government a little more breathable? Again, let the President of Educated Romania tell us. He has this duty to the public.

Note: Of course, President Iohannis can’t formally dismiss him, the Constitution doesn’t allow it. But there are so many ways to exercise presidential authority. He can call Lucian Bode to the Cotroceni and ask for his resignation, or he can force it through a public stance. He can encourage the party to clean house at the top. He hasn’t done any of that so far. And Bode won’t do anything on his own initiative as long as he feels he has tacit support at the Cotroceni.

Traducere (Ovidiu Harfas)