He left the country last week, only a few days before Parliament was to comply with the request by organised crime prosecutors to search his property and, if necessary, take him into custody. Justice officials are now pointing a finger at the legislative flaws that allowed Boldea to leave the country legally. Their dissatisfaction is shared, more or less sincerely, by the politicians, who are the direct beneficiaries of a provision according to which the parliamentary chamber the investigated person belongs to must give their approval for criminal investigations to start.

This type of immunity must be eliminated, say both the ruling and opposition MPs in Romania, noting that the only type of immunity enjoyed by an elected politician should be related to his or her political statements. Any form of protection for MPs suspected of breaking the law is expected to be eliminated with the much-delayed revision of the Constitution. In the meantime, Mihail Boldea is nowhere to be found. However, prosecutors say they could not have forbidden Boldea to leave the country because that would have made it harder to issue an arrest warrant in his name without producing new evidence.

But who is Mihail Boldea and what are the charges against him? Promoted by the Liberal Democratic Party, the main coalition partner, which he later accused of hindering his political career, Boldea moved to the National Union for the Progress of Romania, a party in the ruling coalition artificially created out of opposition defectors after the elections. Boldea is not unknown in Parliament. He was behind several legislative initiatives, some of which were ironically concerned with the judiciary, including amendments to the Criminal Code, the anticorruption laws and the activity of the directorate investigating organised crime and terrorism.

At the same time, Boldea is suspected of being the mastermind of a criminal network in the real estate field, which led to losses of 1 billion euros. One conclusion that can be drawn from this case is that Romania still has many legislative flaws and questionable procedures, which allowed Boldea to avoid facing the law. Another point which deserves a serious discussion is the way in which the Romanian political parties are recruiting and promoting their members.