Dragnea’s plan to get rid of Tudorel Toader

The time has come for Tudorel Toader to be evaluated. After evaluating others, which essentially meant inventing a simple pretext to oust them from a given position, the hunter came to be hunted. All the talk about a government reshuffle seems to be a pretext for changing Toader from the Justice Ministry and, perhaps, Paul Stănescu from the Development Ministry. Neither the „most idiot minister”, as Ţuţuianu called Dănuţ Andruşcă, nor the bland Bran from the Ministry of Youth and Sport, are Dragnea’s headaches today.

These days, the SDP leader is working in overdrive not for a better governance, not for building an extra kilometer of highway, nor for fixing railways fallen in a state of disrepair. It is not Sova’s incompetence at the reigns of the Ministry of Transport that causes his insomnia. Tudorel Toader does not want to pass the Emergency Decree for amnesty and pardon and THIS is the big problem. If Dragnea’s case files are not closed tomorrow, and unless he evades investigations and new convictions, all the efforts to oust Kovesi and Lazar from their positions, and to dismember the judiciary, would have been for nought. The SDP’s leader’s thinking was laid bare in one of his public reactions after the Government Emergency Decree, which also called for the departure of Alexandra Lăncrănjan, the prosecutor in the Tel Drum case file.

“I do not care whether or not the prosecutor is in the DNA, I really do not care. It’s a manipulation. If that prosecutor leaves, does the file get closed? Is the file not simply taken over by another prosecutor? I do not think she’s leaving, someone told me today, „Dragnea said on October 17th. This drives him nuts. All the changes brought to the judiciary so far have not blown the file apart, and the files, as we see, do not self-destruct. There is no one to detonate them for now.

By way of consequence, first, the Minister of Justice must be thrown out, and quickly replaced by a yes-man who would press the nuclear button the next day: the much desired amnesty and pardon. As Tăriceanu does not want to change Tudorel Toader, ousting him is a bit more complicated, but not mission impossible. Several sources have told G4Media.ro that Dragnea is even considering the simple motion announced by the Liberals against Minister Toader. If a majority of SDP lawmakers vote on it and the motion passes, Minister Toader is not automatically demoted, but ALDE will find it more difficult to keep him in the government, once left without political support.

En passant, the Liberal attack on the Minister of Justice, especially after the devastating report of the Venice Commission, is perfectly justified as a political move. Sometimes, however, in order to understand the game and to predict the moves of the opponent it is good to look at the top of the chess board, not just at one piece.

A possible explanation for ALDE’s Leader’s opposition to the change of the Justice Minister is the fear of giving Dragnea an exceptionally strong hand, knowing that he will not hesitate to use it at any point against him to keep a boot on his neck, not just on the opposition’s neck. For this reason, Toader’s preservation at the Ministry of Justice is vital to Tariceanu, and that is why he goes as far as to threaten the SDP leader with a break in the government if, at the end of the „evaluation”, the Minister of Justice will be sent back to Iassy, where he has so many professional options: professor, solicitor or notary public.

Yet, Dragnea’s other, smaller, stake is to send a signal of strength to the party and to eliminate the Putschists and their people from the Government. These would include, for example, Paul Stănescu and George Ivaşcu (the man supported by Gabriela Firea). He has already reached an agreement with other rivals such as Niculae Bădălău. Others have not yet responded to his offerings of government posts or good government agencies to bleed dry.

Traducerea: Ruxandra Stoicescu