Law on measures against antisemitism and xenophobia denounced with CCR by president Dan

President Nicusor Dan sent the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) a notification of unconstitutionality on the Law amending and completing Emergency Order 31/2002 which forbids organizations, symbols and actions with fascist, legionary, racist or xenophobic character and the promotion of people guilty of genocide against humanity and war crimes, as well as the amendment of law 157/2018 on certain measures meant to prevent and fight against antisemitism.   The head of state showed that the Parliament sent him the law for its promulgation on June 21. Nicusor Dan pointed out that “any action of the state that refers to the existing polarization must offer all guarantees not to be read as an action of a political option of society, with majority parliamentary representation, against another one.”   He indicated the lack of clarity of the notion of legionary and fascist. “The absence of a legal definition of the notion of legionaire paves the way of arbitrary actions in the activity of courts of law and prosecution offices and to judge the two infringements of the law in article 1 points 5 and 6, which could generate uneven juridical practice at society level. The danger is even more serious as the crimes mentioned are sanctioned by relatively serious punishments (jail terms from 3 to 10 years and from one to 5 years and the interdiction of certain rights), which makes the lack of clarity of the law to determine important risks versus individual freedom and the other guarantees associated to the right for an equitable trial. In the same way, the term of fascist does not benefit from a legal definition, even though it is constantly used in emergency order 31/2002, raising the same question of nn-compliance of legal texts with standards imposed by article 1, paragraph 5 of the Constitution,” says the head of state.   The head of state points out that the law is not clear about the notion of fascist, legionaire, racist or xenophobic materials from the perspective of the concentration of content and from the perspective of the author.   Nicusor Dan also brings constitutionality criticism from the perspective of the right to information (art.31 of the Constitution), access to culture (art.33 of Constitution) and freedom of expression (art.30 of Constitution).   “Considering the presented arguments, I ask you to admit the intimation of non-constitutionality and to find out that the Law amending and completing Emergency order 31/2002 forbidding organizations, symbols and deeds with fascist, legionaire, racist or xenophobic character and the promotion of the cult of people guilty of genocide against humanity and crimes of war, and the amendment of law 157/2018 on certain measures meant to prevent and fight against antisemitism is unconstitutional,” said the head of state in the note sent to CCR.   The law was denounced at CCR by deputies belonging to parliamentary groups of SOS Romania Party, the Alliance for the Romanians' Unity and the Young People's Party and non-affiliated deputies.