Possible government reshuffle in Bucharest

Prime minister Mihai Tudose is considering a government reshuffle, but he is yet to reveal the ministries targeted.

Bogdan Matei, 11.10.2017, 13:12

Sworn in in
June, the government made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of
Liberals and Democrats has already been reshuffled once, in September. The
economy minister Mihai Fifor took over the defence ministry from Adrian
Tutuianu, while the MP Gheorghe Simon became economy minister in Fifor’s place.

On Tuesday,
prime minister Mihai Tudose said he was considering a new reshuffle, but that
he would only reveal the names of the outgoing ministers on Thursday, after a
meeting of the Social Democratic leadership. Tudose said the meeting in
question would also establish the relationship between the government and the
party. Mihai Tudose:

Based on the
assumption that this is a political government but that we must still clarify
the level of involvement of certain party structures in the government’s
activity, we have established together the areas covered by the reshuffle, but
I will make public the names targeted and the new proposals after the meeting
of the party’s executive committee.

The prime
minister has already discussed the reshuffle with the Social Democrats’ leader
Liviu Dragnea. The meeting was held after Tudose himself admitted he was not on
the best of terms with Dragnea. The media has speculated that the estrangement
between the two may be the result of the strict control exerted by the Social
Democratic leadership on the government, the fact that the prime minister is
surrounded by ministers who are loyal more to Dragnea, as well as the often
dramatic gap between the big election promises that swept the party to victory
and the challenges of actually being in government. However, the president of
the Social Democratic Party has described the measures presented by the prime
minister as necessary and justified:

We’ve had what
in my opinion was a good and necessary discussion that has helped clarify some
things. The prime minister has presented several measures that need to be taken
to eliminate the problems in the implementation of the governing programme. We
will discuss these things at the meeting of the executive committee, but I
believe that the arguments presented during our informal meeting will also be
accepted by the committee.

The prime
minister has also discussed the reshuffle with president Klaus Iohannis, who
reiterated his conviction that the persons who have had a run-in with the law
should resign from the government or be sacked. In light of these comments, the
media is convinced the ministers targeted by the reshuffle will include deputy
prime minister Sevil Shhaideh, seen by commentators as Dragnea’s protégé, the
minister delegate for European funds Rovana Plumb and the minister delegate for
the relationship with Parliament Viorel Ilie, all of whom are under criminal
investigation for corruption. The list may also include several other cabinet
members with an image problem. The National Liberal Party, which is the main
opposition party, has already announced that if prime minister Tudose does not
get rid of all ministers with legal problems it may seek support for a
non-confidence motion against the government.