Parliament holds vote of investiture for the new cabinet

Mihai Tudose's cabinet to receive a vote of investiture by Parliament.

Corina Cristea, 29.06.2017, 12:51

The leftist
coalition in Bucharest presented Parliament’s specialist committees with a new
cabinet that includes 16 ministers from the previous cabinet led by Sorin
Grindeanu, who was sacked after a no-confidence vote initiated by the main
ruling party itself, the Social Democratic Party.

The creation of
a position of deputy-prime minister without portfolio to coordinate
interministerial activities is the only change in the structure of the cabinet.
Marcel Ciolacu has been proposed to take up this new post. Most of the
ministers from the Grindeanu cabinet retain their positions, with Sevil
Shhaideh staying on as minister for regional development, Olguta Vasilescu as
labour minister and Florian Bodog as healthcare minister. The incumbents of the
interior, transport, justice, foreign affairs, the environment and agriculture
will also keep their posts in the future cabinet. The Tudose cabinet also
contains some new names, such as Mihai Fifor, who has been proposed as economy
minister, Adrian Tutuianu as the new defence minister and Doina Pana as the new
minister for waters and forests.

The Social
Democrat Mihai Tudose says his priority is to implement the governing programme
under strict, possibly weekly, political control, to make up for the delays. New
measures related to fiscal predictability and social protection have also been
added to the programme. Cabinet ministers will have to prove themselves through
deeds, not words, said Mihai Tudose, adding that the first reading of the
sovereign development fund project will take place in his first cabinet meeting.

Hand-picked by
the Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea to replace Sorin Grindeanu, who was
blamed for failing to respect the ambitious goals of the Social Democrats’
election programme, Mihai Tudose served as economy minister on two occasions.
His critics wonder why he was chosen to form the new government given that he
did not come out very well at the assessment that led to the fall of the
Grindeanu cabinet. His record included zero completed measures, several that
were only partially completed and many failures. Other voices have raised
questions about his connection to the intelligence services. He is also
suspected of having plagiarised his doctoral thesis, having requested himself
the withdrawal of his title. Mihai Tudose has provided an explanation for all
of these questions, which were enough for some, but not for all.