A FAIRY TALE ABOUT THE INDEPENDENCE OF JUSTICE Offensive and counter-offensive

Rumor has it that the United States have allowed our judges and prosecutors to express their independence.

We can imagine a fairy tale for grown-up children, in which the good Americans, such as for instance state secretary Victoria Nuland, comes to Romania in January and talks nicely to every judge and prosecutor and tells them: "You are a good and fair people and you want to serve justice, and we guarantee your independence. The time has come to do what you've been dreaming about!"

And then, our good and decent prosecutors found the courage to arrest Dan Voiculescu.

But they started hesitating when they saw the virulent reactions of the millions of viewers of Antena 3, so Victoria Nuland renewed her behest, in the beginning of October. With renewed courage, the prosecutors, judges and policemen started prosecuting, arresting and detaining dozens of top politicians, reveling in their independence.

Coincidentally, Victoria Nuland showed her interest in the independence of the Romanian judicial system court precisely during the election period.

That is why everybody in Romania suspects that the judicial system is driven by "innocent" Traian Băsescu, who is still president, an opinion which is of course mistaken.

Another coincidence makes it that Traian Băsescu said prior to the electoral campaign: "Politics and the press are full of people that lie (...) There are far too many scoundrels present in the public space! (...)

In this campaign I will tell about it to everybody. Some of them I will publicly strip naked".

It is true that Traian Băsescu was referring to the presidential candidates, but, it would seem that he is stripping naked his servants first.

When a top politician such as Viorel Hrebenciuc is blamed for unlawful retrocessions, people think that it is Traian Băsescu who has "stripped" him and showing him for what he is. And no one actually thinks that in the case of Viorel Hrebenciuc, the prosecutors are actually acting of their own accord.

From the shadow of Traian Băsescu and, maybe using the hidden role played by Victoria Nuland as an excuse, a few "trolls" and "goblins" have shown up and started settling their accounts, leaving the impression that it is another maneuver led by the sailor, when they actually had scores to settle within their own parties.

Viorel Hrebenciuc promised Dan Şova his support for the presidency of the PSD (against Liviu Dragnea and Valeriu Zgonea), provided they help him by abrogating a legal provision that makes him indictable.

"One very lucky thing for some is the fact that stupidity is not yet an indictable offense in Romania", said Liviu Dragnea, when asked to comment on the shorthand transcripts in the Hrebenciuc case.

A conflict that is only now surfacing is the one between Sebastian Ghiţă and Marian Vanghelie. The latter has openly announced, through some paparazzi: "We are arresting Ghiţă?!!, You f**• s!? Are we arresting Ghiţă? F*• you, f*• Ghiţă and Ponta!" Aside from this kind of language that makes this fairy tale stand out, this "outburst" shows what the political intentions of the mayor of the 5th district of Bucharest are.

In order to somewhat redeem the public perception of his party, Victor Ponta yesterday announced that Dan Şova, Marian Vanghelie and Sebastian Ghiţă are suspended from every position they hold in the former.

Also yesterday, Viorel Hrebenciuc decided to resign from the Parliament.

I did say it was a story for grown-ups.

The blunt and undiscussed state of things is presented in the chart that comprises the list of personalities (generally, politicians) that have APBs to their name, or that have been indicted or arrested this autumn, just as the electoral campaign officially begins.

You can see how many of the people on the list are members of the PSD, and the charges against the few PDL members that made the list seem to be just for show.

You can draw your own conclusions on the independence of justice.

We have to admit that, independent or not, the courts would never have done this under a different regime than that of Traian Băsescu, and, regardless of whether they are coincidental or not, these actions of the prosecutors do bring some satisfaction.