Save Romania Union (USR) Chairman and Timisoara mayor Dominic Fritz said on Monday, after the Constitutional Court's passing the ruling on the Integrity Law, that 'instead of stopping a brutal abuse of power, the PSD majority in the Constitutional Court has just validated it.'

He warned that if the president promulgates the Integrity Law, his term as mayor will end in 30 days, calling it a retroactive sanction for actions that took place before the law's coming into force.

'The privileged mafia's need to get rid of me prompts them to act desperately so that they demolish the foundations of democracy. Article 15 of the Constitution - 'the law applies only for the future' - was suspended today for me. Tomorrow it can be suspended for anyone. As of today, any parliamentary majority can invent punishments for the past, tailored to a political opponent, and the politically controlled Constitutional Court will rubber-stamp them,' Fritz wrote on Facebook.

He added that PSD will have to explain to the European Commission how a €770 million milestone law was turned 'into a weapon against a twice-elected mayor.'

Fritz also said the decision undermines investor confidence: 'It will be harder to explain why they should create jobs here if the entire state is at the mercy of one corrupt party.'

He rejected the idea of a 'clean, pro-European PSD,' claiming the party seeks total power and controls institutions such as the National Integrity Agency, parts of the judiciary, media and even the Constitutional Court.

'What the PSD cannot control are the millions of honest Romanians. My path continues at the ECHR - I will fight not for myself, but for the free vote of Timisoara's citizens.'

Fritz reiterated that his 'offence' was to sign a duplicate of a document already signed by the former mayor, on his second day in office in 2020, for a zoning plan drafted entirely before he became mayor.

He noted that under the new law, such regulatory acts can no longer be classified as conflicts of interest: 'If ANI were to analyse today my 2020 signature, it couldn't find a conflict of interest. The law removes the act for the future but invents a new sanction for those who supposedly committed it in the past - welcome to PSD's dictatorship.'

The Constitutional Court (CCR) ruled constitutional an amendment introduced by PSD and AUR under which elected officials found incompatible or in conflict of interest lose their positions. With a majority vote, the CCR upheld the provision stating that public office ends automatically 30 days after the law enters into force. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Andreea Rotaru; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)