PSD, total assault on the key institution in 2024. At stake: control of elections and the money parties use to buy off media moguls

How fair will the four rounds of elections in 2024 be? The question needs to be raised, because the independence and autonomy of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), guaranteed by law, is under assault by the PSD. With the complicity of the PNL and President Iohannis, the PSD is preparing to seize the key institution for Romanian democracy and appoint Toni Greblă, a trusted comrade who has served the party wherever he has been appointed.

For the PSD, control over the AEP has a double stake: the organisation of the 2024 elections and the control of how parties spend the huge amounts of money from the state budget subsidy.

The Court of Accounts, the institution that investigates the spending of public money, is also controlled by the PSD through Mihai Busuioc, which means that Ciolacu’s party can sleep peacefully: no one will ask around Kiseleff how the millions of lei from the PSD are leaked to the press through the company Look Outdoor or how the party bought its headquarters from a state-owned company under the Ministry of Economy.

It is important to underline the legislative framework: Article 100 of the law on the functioning of the AEP states that „the Permanent Electoral Authority is an autonomous administrative institution (…) The Permanent Electoral Authority carries out its activities in compliance with the principles of independence, impartiality, legality, transparency, efficiency, professionalism, accountability, sustainability, predictability and legitimacy”.

The appointment of Toni Greblă is a guarantee of non-compliance with the law. Toni Greblă (69) is the prefect of the capital supported by the PSD. He was secretary general of the Dăncilă government, PSD senator, prefect of Gorj and PSD-backed judge at the Constitutional Court. He’s a party executive in every sense of the word, with zero political independence.

The PSD has already penetrated the institution strongly in the last three years, during the mandate of another politician, Constantin Mitulețu Buică. He left the head of the institution only after an criminal complaint by the National Integrity Institution (ANI) for having hired his sister-in-law, but was immediately reinstated as secretary general of the institution – an incomprehensible gesture by Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă.

During his time as head of the institution, Mitulețu Buică populated it with PSD-ists at all levels and in all counties. He hired over 500 people, completely unnecessarily, just to place party people in key positions.

With 500 extra people, the institution is unable to check how the PSD and PNL direct tens of millions of euros to the press when election advertising is strictly regulated. Where does this money go, since the moguls’ TV channels and websites do not mark up their programmes or advertising articles anywhere? How are these contracts made? Who are the intermediaries who take the money from the parties to the moguls? What do the moguls’ TV stations provide in return for the tens of millions of euros?

The answers to these questions could mean criminal charges. Hence the need to control information and financial flows, i.e. the AEP and the Court of Auditors.

But this political control over an institution that should be independent risks undermining the credibility of the 2024 elections. That is why it is essential to appoint an independent to head the EPA to guarantee the fairness of the electoral process.

What we see in the PSD is an old tactic, decades old: the colonisation of the institutions of control and arbitration, especially when their stay in government is in question. The PSD controls the Romanian communications regulator CNA. The PSD also tried a new attack on the Competition Council, which was only stopped after a quick reaction from the European Commission. Whether they stay in power or go into opposition, the PSD will have complete control over institutions essential to the functioning of the state. All this, under the eyes of a PNL on its knees and a president who sacrifices everything for the illusory support of the PSD in obtaining a position in Brussels.

Translated artcile