Liberal Party MP Cristian Becanu says the absorption of PSD’s old “harmful ideas” will be decided by the PNL vote. Former state secretary Katalina Predoju in Orban Becanu’s government says decisions on the 50,000-euro threshold for abuse of office should be discussed within the party, and suggests a “symbolic” level of just 1,000 lei.

“I will never vote for the law to amend the Criminal Code and introduce a threshold of 250,000 lei for abuse of office, as it was passed in the Senate. I will propose to the Chamber of Deputies to find a solution that does not affect the application of the criminal law. It is important to set the threshold as low as possible, a symbolic threshold. For example, if we set a threshold, it can be 1000 lei. The reason is that, as a general rule, prosecutors do not prosecute crimes that have such a small amount of damage, given the cost of criminal proceedings (much higher than this threshold). In the case of such sums, administrative liability should be applied,” said Cristian Becanu, vice president of the PNL and member of the legal commission in the Chamber of Deputies, according to a press release.

He believes that these issues, which have a huge impact on society, need to be discussed in party forums, drawing attention to the risks involved in voting Liberal.

“As the vice president of the PNL, I believe that there should be an internal discussion on this matter in an internal leadership forum. When solving such issues that concern the entire society, it is necessary to consult with the entire leadership of the party, taking into account that such projects concern every member of the party and every individual citizen. It is not in the interest of the PNL, nor in the interest of the nation, to promote old harmful PSD ideas such as this. The risk is that the National Liberal Party, not the Social Democratic Party, will vote for such harmful ideas. We are in a coalition, and that requires us to be very careful about the decisions we make and the form of projects we support. It is important that, with our help, some partners do not push their ideas through the parliament,” he said.

The Senate passed a draft amendment to the Criminal Code, which establishes a value threshold for ill-treatment and contempt in the service. More precisely, if the damage is less than 250,000 lei, i.e. 50,000 euros, then there is no crime. This was provided for by Law No. 13, which brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets, only then the threshold was 200,000 lei.

The coalition envisages the decriminalization of abuse and negligence in the service in the case of damages of less than 250,000 lei, the president of the legal committee in the Senate, PNL senator Cristian Niculescu Šegarlash, told HotNews.ro.

The PNL senator explained that the amendment adopted by the Legal Commission was based on the Coalition’s decision from Sunday evening, which was communicated to him by email. The meeting of the Coalition took place in a narrow circle on Sunday evening and was attended by Marcel Çolaku, Nicolae Chouke, Kelemen Hunor and Katalin Predoyu. According to HotNews.ro sources, interim Senate President Alina Gorgiu allegedly gave the PNL parliamentary group a directive that the amendments be passed by a PNL vote.

The Ministry of Justice proposes a threshold of 9,000 lei to decriminalize abuse of office in a bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday with a threshold of 250,000 lei, a bill that will go to the Chamber of Deputies.