Layers of conflict

Abstract

Since the PSD party won the election of December 2016, Romania has experienced an exacerbation of the conflict that flared up during the early 2000s with the judicial reforms in preparation for EU accession. The powerful onslaughts on the constitutional state by the government are an indirect indication of a positive development: they are a response to successes in establishing an independent judiciary, which is also taking action against powerful individuals in the fight against corruption. These successes were made possible by an ongoing conflict between the government and the president. Judges and state attorneys have been forced against their will into taking a political stance as a result of the continued dispute surrounding the judiciary – including many people in society, who have come to regard them as a type of substitute opposition in light of the lack of political alternatives.