It is only natural for a government representing the most religious people in Europe to implement mercy, this unabashedly Christian concept. I’ve just learned from my former classmates that the amnesty ordinance (which is really an executive order / edict / decree “emanating” from the government and bypassing the legislature) that formed the object of the past week’s protests has been adopted. Precum in cer asa si pe pamant.

What we know is that Dragnea has seen his dream come true: both the amnesty and “abuse of function” emergency ordinances were unanimously passed by the government, in one shot with the 2017 budget. I’m willing to bet that the budget has some nasty surprises as well, but nobody will see those as people will be too busy cleaning off the excrement spread out from the amnesty shit bomb.

There is another potentially record-breaking demonstration brewing in Bucharest, with 15000 people in the street, at 1am, on –10 C (hn-live).

I wish I could comment more, but I’m not even using my computer, which is currently being fixed and FEDEX’d back to me. Instead, I’ll just quickly present a few news items from the past few days.

• Kovesi, Romania’s main fighter against corruption, has sued Antena 3 “journalists” for damages, had won and now they keep trying to postpone the appeal (hn-recurs). One of them (Mugur Ciuvica) had appeled the university decision that had found Kovesi not guilty of plagiarism and the appeal was rejected (hn-cnatdcu). Her organization is also requesting stronger means to fight against disinformation (hn-dna).
• Florin Iordache, Minister of Justice and Dragnea’s Chief Apologist, is becoming a sort of Kellyanne mixed with Spicer: he’s consistently incapable to distinguish care/pe care, i.e., who/whom (hn-care), he’s waging a war on the media, much like Trump, disallowing cameras (hn-fb), misdirecting by suggesting that the ordinances were to be passed on Wednesday (hn-wed), and he’s generally very aggressive with the media (hn-aggr). This allowed the minister of finance to get away without many questions on the budget (hn-stefan) – I smell a rat in there.
• There is a short list of dignitaries who will escape with the ordinances (hn-list) and the text of one of them (hn-adev).
• On the PSD-friendly Antena 3, PM Grindeanu declared (hn-grindeanuA3) his dissatisfaction with the protests being “clearly political” and of “displeasing tonality”
• German Chanchelor Angela Merkel had a conversation on Friday with President Iohannis (hn-convo), assuring him of her support in the fight against corruption (hn-merkel). I shouldn’t, but when I read about them, I think of the House of Horrors.

..and some unrelated news..

• Romanians are so thin that Mercedes-Benz is recalling 530 SUVs as some sensors are fooled into identifying adults as kids, causing airbag deployment and other adjustments to change (0-100)
• ROTLD consultation (hn-rotld)

All in all, partisanship galore. I suspect there will be many reactions. For now, DEXonline and Reuters.

Sources / More info: hn-oug, hn-live