Open conflict between Presidency and Government
President Klaus Iohannis has rejected the reshuffling proposals made by the Social Democrat PM Viorica Dancila.
Ştefan Stoica, 29.08.2019, 14:08
The crisis within the Government, that has deepened in the past few days, confirms the contempt shown by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), President Klaus Iohannis has said in reaction to the governmental crisis triggered by the decision of the Liberal Democrats, headed by Calin Popescu Tariceanu, to break the coalition with Dancila’s Social Democrats. What happens these days is the natural outcome of two years and a half of chaotic, incompetent and corrupt governing, Iohannis went on to say. He is convinced that PSD and ALDE share the responsibility for the failure of this governing, marked, in his opinion, by the massacre of the justice laws and the adoption of the wrong economic measures. Iohannis has promised he will continue to oppose what he sees as the Social Democrats’ attempts to steer the country away from the right path and has announced he rejects the reshuffling proposals made by the PM. According to President Iohannis, the current government must get the Parliament’s vote.
Klaus Iohannis: “I do not accept any reshuffle proposals by this Government. That is not only because this Government has changed his political structure, but also because the proposals that I received are simply unacceptable. The current Government needs a new confirmation in Parliament through a procedure that I request. If the new Government configuration is not approved, I assure Romanians that there are fair, democratic and constitutional solutions for Romania to avoid a deep political crisis.”
On her part, PM Dancila has rejected the President’s allegations of corruption and has accused him of having constantly tried to hinder the current Government for the past two and a half years. PM Dancila has said she will try to win political support in Parliament.
Viorica Dancila: “In spite of all these obstacles in the past few days, we will carry out our activity. We will go to Parliament and try to win the support we need to carry out our mandate. And I say this not because we want to further keep our positions, but because we have a responsibility towards the country and the Romanians to carry out the governing programme, as we promised in 2016.”
The Opposition says the prime minister must resign and that Romania needs a new Government, because the current one has lost its legitimacy. Liberal leader Ludovic Orban has said that after the no confidence vote supported, at least in theory, by all parties, the Liberals will try to call early elections given that the new legislative structure makes the forming of a new majority very difficult. In the three decades of post-communist democracy, no early parliamentary elections have been called in Romania. The country is set to hold regular parliamentary elections in 2020.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
