Dacian Ciolos’s
\ntechnocratic Government has this week suffered a new loss. After the
\nresignations of the Labour Minister Ana Costea and of the Minister for European
\nFunds Aura Raducu, it was time for Vlad Alexandrescu to leave the Government.
\nOn Tuesday, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos removed him from the office of Culture
\nMinister. A university professor and former Ambassador of Romania to
\nLuxembourg, Vlad Alexandrescu was criticized for the way he handled a dispute
\nat the National Opera in Bucharest. Alexandrescu changed three managers in just
\none month, without managing however to ease tensions at the Opera.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Dacian
\nCiolos believes that a Minister’s response to a crisis situation reflects his
\nability to carry out his mandate. Vlad Alexandrescu was equally accused of
\nhaving generated controversies by first announcing his resignation, then
\nstating he would only leave if Prime Minister Ciolos sacked him. In a letter
\nthat reached the press, Vlad Alexandrescu claimed that some members of the
\nGovernment had tried to intimidate him and that the decisions he made in six
\nmonths of office did not sit well with various interest groups. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of the
\nmany prestigious figures in the field of culture who voiced support for Vlad
\nAlexandrescu was Andrei Plesu, himself a former Culture Minister. In an article
\non what a Romanian Minister should be like, Andrei Plesu outlined
\nAlexandrescu’s merits. Among others, he saved important national heritage
\nmonuments, through direct intervention. He launched a public subscription
\ncampaign for the procurement of the Wisdom of the Earth, a masterpiece by the
\nfamous Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Last but not least, he managed to
\ninclude Rosia Montana on UNESCO’s World Heritage tentative list, thus thwarting
\nany further attempts at turning this century-old settlement in central Romania
\ninto a huge gold mining operation. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Andrei Plesu did not go too far in singing
\nAlexandrescu’s praises, saying the former Minister did make mistakes and caused
\na lot of inconvenience by having too much initiative. Andrei Plesu believes
\nthat technocrats are, in theory at least, more vulnerable than
\npolitically-appointed ministers. The party usually nominates them, protects
\nthem and only if they commit serious errors, withdraws them. Without
\nParliament’s support, Dacian Ciolos’s technocratic Government is now open to
\ncriticism for what it is trying to achieve, despite its uncertain position,
\nAndrei Plesu also argues. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Government is prevented from taking too much
\naction but criticized for taking too little. Other Ministers who are now in the
\ncrosshairs for their under par performance are the Health Minister Patriciu
\nAchimas Cadariu, who failed to deal with the many flaws in the healthcare
\nsystem, as well as the Agriculture Minister Achim Irimescu, whose only
\nachievement in the six months since he took office was to be at the center of
\ntwo scandals. Many voices claim the two are very likely next on the list of
\nministers to be given the sack. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Romanian Culture Minister Vlad Alexandrescu was dismissed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":68410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[38472,29552,29503],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-68409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-culture-minister-vlad-alexandrescu","tag-pm-dacian-ciolos","tag-romanian-government"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n