In the Spirit of Caste and Contempt for the People, the CSM Defends Its Privileges

It seems that in Romania, the rule of law is only good when it protects the privileges of a caste. When it comes to the people, to fairness, to the vital European funds for the country, those principles melt away like snow in April. The CSM reacted as if burned to Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s proposals regarding magistrates’ special pensions, solemnly declaring that the Government’s initiative “is more characteristic of a true diktat, carried out without any consultation of the judicial authority, and represents an abusive and arbitrary exercise of executive power that throws into derision the principle of loyal cooperation between public authorities and the status of justice as a power of the state.”
Beautifully said, even academic—but who can still swallow such bombastic phrases when the reality is that, because of these inflated pensions, the European Commission has blocked hundreds of millions of euros from the NRRP? Non-reimbursable funds, money Romania needs like air. But no, for the CSM it’s more important that a magistrate retires at 45 with 20,000 lei a month than for the country to breathe.
It’s not the first time the CSM has played this role of shield for itself. Every time an attempt was made to enact fair regulations, the Council, in complicity with the Constitutional Court, jumped as if stung, blocking any reform attempt. The people could shout as much as they wanted—the only thing echoing in their ears were their own privileges. And when it came to invented salary rights, they delivered justice among themselves, judge versus prosecutor, until they managed to stuff their pockets with over one billion lei. Even Prime Minister Bolojan admits it.
Let’s not forget: the same CSM that today screams about trampling on judicial independence stayed dead silent when thousands of corruption files involving magistrates gathered dust in drawers. It fiercely opposed allowing the DNA to investigate crimes within the system. It remains silent even now, while major corruption cases drag on until they reach the statute of limitations, when verdicts are handed down not in the name of the law but in the name of caste complicity.
And when President Nicuşor Dan asked the CSM not to appoint Corina Corbu as head of the High Court of Cassation and Justice on grounds of serious career misconduct, what did they do? They ignored the voice of the people and chose self-protection. And now they are surprised the public sees them as a state within a state.
Let’s be clear: we are not talking about the independence of justice, but the independence of privileges. The CSM promises it will use all institutional tools to “protect” these special pensions. In other words, it is digging trenches to defend the last bastion of an untouchable caste.
I can only hope that Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan will not yield to this furious attack, will not be intimidated by the screams of “dictatorship” from those who confuse judicial independence with immunity to reform. The country needs those European funds, not the crocodile tears of a CSM that has too often proven to be the lawyer of its own privileges and not of true justice.
This is not a fight against justice. It is a fight for justice. And if Romania continues to be held hostage by a caste, then no NRRP and no European Commission will be able to save us.