The huge power of the secret services in Romania, with Youri Smouter

“On the Barricades” s06e16

This weekend we have a two-part release of “On the Barricades” with Youri Smouter of 1+1. In this first part, host Maria Cernat discusses with Youri about the nature of the Romanian secret services, its history, and how people feel about its gargantuan undemocratic role in Romanian politics and society– in comparison to, say, the BLM movement in the US that lashed back at the police brutality and the state. This topic arises after a recent groundbreaking video report that was released by independent journalists in Romania to dig deeper into the context of an incident in which newly-appointed Romanian politicians found recording devices amateuristically installed in their offices. The spying was conducted by a branch of the security services. These devices can be installed only with the legal basis of suspecting a “national threat.” When the politicians hired the police branch of the state to investigate, it was found the devices were accessing classified information, but then they lost their jobs.