Romanian Prosecutor Who Took On Entrenched Corruption Is Fired

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s president dismissed the head of the country’s anticorruption agency on Monday, indicating that a court ruling had left him no choice. The move, while long predicted, raises concerns about prosecutorial independence in a country that ranks among the more corrupt in Europe.

The governing Social Democratic Party and its allies had long wanted to remove the anticorruption chief, Laura Codruta Kovesi, while President Klaus Iohannis had been a vocal supporter of the country’s efforts to fight corruption. But he has been under increasing pressure to fire Ms. Kovesi since the justice minister recommended her removal in February, accusing her, among other things, of exceeding her authority and damaging Romania’s image abroad.

In late May, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled that Mr. Iohannis, whose office has little power, did not have the right to overrule the justice minister, and that he was required to dismiss Ms. Kovesi. Even so, he put off making a decision for almost a month and a half.

On Friday, the Social Democratic Party said it would discuss the idea of suspending Mr. Iohannis from office for his refusal to act on Monday, which most likely forced his hand.

“In a state governed by the rule of law, rulings by the Constitutional Court must be respected,” Madalina Dobrovolschi, a spokeswoman for the president, said in a statement announcing the decision.

Romania, which joined the European Union in 2007, has long struggled with entrenched corruption, but in recent years the country has taken steps to rein in high-level graft, winning popular support and praise from Brussels. Since Ms. Kovesi became chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate in 2013, the agency has successfully prosecuted thousands of government officials, lawmakers and business leaders.

The government has faced mass protests for its attempts to roll back the anticorruption drive, but Ms. Kovesi has been a lightning rod for those who say that the efforts have gone too far, including in the use of court-approved wiretaps. Last month, the governing party and its allies gathered over a hundred thousand people in the capital to show support for the government and to criticize those they labeled a parallel state, prominent among them Ms. Kovesi.

In firing her, Mr. Iohannis, a former leader of the opposition National Liberal Party, is likely to disappoint many of his supporters, and Romania’s Western allies.

As recently as Friday, Ms. Kovesi said she would not resign, despite the political pressure. The president’s decision took that option out of her hands.

“The president did everything in his power to prevent the change,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, a professor of political science at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj. He said the president made the correct choice to avoid delegitimizing the governing system and prompting further crises.

That is unlikely to appease many of his supporters, however.

“Iohannis has still to convince them that his stance is the only reasonable one,” Mr. Miscoiu said. “This can be done only by trying to impose a replacement who is on the precise same line as Kovesi. A regular, tough, preferably low-profile, prosecutor with a good record of convictions, and with no major liability. It’s not easy to find but there are some.”

In an interview in her office last month, Ms. Kovesi told The New York Times that if the independence of the prosecutor disappeared, “as it appears it now does, the job does not become more difficult,” it becomes impossible.

At a news conference after her dismissal was announced, Ms. Kovesi thanked her colleagues and said she would be leaving the anticorruption agency but would remain a prosecutor. “What we have succeeded in demonstrating is that Romanian public institutions are working legally and yes, corruption can be defeated,” she added. “Today’s episode is not a defeat.”

The president’s decision comes at a crucial moment for rule of law in Romania. On June 21, Liviu Dragnea, the powerful leader of the Social Democratic Party and the speaker of the lower house of Parliament, was found guilty of abuse of office, for intervening to keep two of his party’s employees, who performed no state work, on the public payroll from 2006 to 2013, when he was a local council leader.

The court sentenced Mr. Dragnea to three years and six months in jail, though the verdict is expected to be appealed. Mr. Dragnea was previously given a two-year suspended sentence for electoral fraud.

Last week, Parliament rushed through changes to the country’s criminal code overhauling abuse-of-power laws. Mr. Iohannis has said he will challenge the legislation at the Constitutional Court.

Under the legislation, prosecutors would need to prove that defendants abused power for their own benefit, or for that of a close relative. Any case involving less than the equivalent of $475, the minimum monthly wage, would also be exempt from criminal prosecution, maximum jail sentences for abuse of office would be lowered to five years from seven, and convicts over age 60 would serve only one-third of their sentences.

The country experienced the largest protests in a quarter of a century in February 2017, after the government passed an emergency ordinance weakening anticorruption laws. The government backed down then, but protests have become a regular occurrence as the government continues to push to weaken anticorruption laws and the independence of the courts and prosecutors.

In her statement, Ms. Dobrovolschi, the president’s spokeswoman, added: “In Romania, the fight against corruption must not be diminished or blocked in any way. On the contrary, it must continue.”