Sorin Grindeanu is the new nomination of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) for Prime Minister, Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea announced on Wednesday at the end of PSD National Executive Committee (NEC).
“We had an in-depth, thorough discussion at the NEC meeting where I asked my colleagues to each voice their viewpoint, their opinion, their proposals, also based on the discussions we had these days with people in the counties. (…) A trend has surely been building up in recent days, thousands of messages poured in yesterday, last night and this morning asking us to move to suspend the President. Indeed, we have a very powerful weapon at hand, a force which is represented by parliamentary majority, this is where legitimate power resides, this is where it should be in this country, and in no other institution,” the PSD leader said at the end of the NEC meeting.
Liviu Dragnea underscored that the Social Democrats are not irresponsibly making use of political force “to harm or greatly disrupt this country and the lives of the Romanians.”
He also said that he himself had been his colleagues’ initial proposition for the office of Premier.
“Only that during the campaign I made some straightforward, honest statements. I said I don’t want to secure an office by bending a law everybody says is unjust and unconstitutional,” he explained.
Under the given circumstances, Dragnea went on, the PSD NEC had to find a solution, “a colleague who is loyal to the governing program and the party, who has the capacity to understand that this governing program is aimed at the Romanians and Romania, and who does not go to the Victoria Palace of Government to create a pole of power there.”
“We also discussed what we should we do, caught as we were between the natural desire arising from frustration – that more than two weeks have passed since we won these elections and we still have no government installed – so as I say, between the desire to come forth to the President’s unspoken invitation to slide into a political crisis, and reason. My decision, which had the backing of my colleagues, was for us to further choose the goals that serve the Romanians – welfare, more money in their pockets, the freedom to think, the freedom to speak, including by phone, the freedom to hope that if they don’t steal, nobody nabs them from their home, the right to have a good health system, a good education system, the right to eat and feed on the products of our land, the right to have better roads, motorways, basically the right to a better life,” Dragnea explained.
According to him, PSD chose not to plunge the country into a political crisis that could delay the adoption of measures the Romanians have been expecting since long.
“It wasn’t a very easy decision to make. (…) Under these circumstances I suggested my colleagues – after having consulted with Mr. Tariceanu and obtained his support for this nomination – to refer Sorin Grindeanu to President Iohannis as our proposition for PM. As far as I know, he is no Hezbollah or Hamas agent, who knows, maybe it surfaces that he is a KGB agent, or that he has killed someone. I hope this proposition is taken seriously,” the PSD Chairman explained.
Sorin Grindeanu’s bio:
Sorin Grindeanu was born on December 5 1973 in Caransebes.
He graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics – Computer Science Section of the West University of Timisoara (1992-1997). After graduation, he attended several training courses: a post-graduate program in DataBases, with the same faculty; Computer Science (1997-1998); the Tempus 3-month scholarship with the University of Bologna – Italy in Social Statistics (1999); specialisations in: Adult Education with the Institut fur Erwachsenenbildung of Frankfurt – Germany, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal, Metropolitan Leeds University, Great Britain (2001), according to www.soringrindeanu.ro.
Grindeanu worked as a graduate assistant with the Timisoara West University, at the Faculty of Sociology and Psychology (Oct. 1998 – Oct. 2000); university assistant with the Timisoara West University, the same faculty (Oct. 2000 – Dec. 2001). Served as director with the Timis County Youth and Sports Department (Nov. 2001- Jan. 2004); Delpack Invest SRL deputy CEO (Jan. 2005 – March 2008); manager at SC Ahm Smartel SRL (March – June 2008).
He entered politics in November 1996, when he became a PDSR (Party of Social Democracy of Romania) member. Two years later, in October 1998 he became vice-chairman of the Youth Organisation of the PDSR Timis and in December 2001 – deputy chairman of the Timis Social Democratic Youth (TSD). On August 30 2013, Sorin Grindeanu was elected deputy secretary general of PSD.
Over 2004-2008, he was a local councilor with the Timisoara Local Council. From June 2008 until January 2013, he was a deputy mayor of Timisoara City. Following the parliamentary elections of December 9 2012, Sorin Grindeanu was elected deputy of Timis.
He served as minister for the Information Society (17 December 2014 – 17 November 2015).
As of June 2016, Grindeanu is Timis County Council president on PSD’s behalf.
Of the books he published, the following are worth mentioning: “Introduction in social computer science” and “Desktop Publishing”, alongside “The Lebesgue-Radon integral in relation to a complex measure.”
Grindeanu is married and father of two.
PSD’s Grindeanu: I will not make political movements in Government without my colleagues
Sorin Grindeanu, who was proposed on Wednesday by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) for Prime Minister stated that he will not make political movements in the Government without the agreement of his colleagues and added that there is a subordination relationship between him and Liviu Dragnea, as Chairman of the PSD.
“I will not make movements in the Government or political ones without my colleagues. They must decide, together we have to decide the movements we are to make. (…) It is a subordination relationship, Mr. Dragnea is the PSD Chair, it’s simple,” Grindeanu asserted.
He said that he received a great responsibility from the PSD’s National Executive Committee (CExN).
“I thank my colleagues for the today’s vote in the National Executive Committee. It is a great responsibility and I feel this responsibility on my back, not just the vote that I have received today from my colleagues, but for the Romanians’ vote for a government programme that we have to put into practice. I asked my colleagues in the CExN, but first of all I asked the party’s Chair, Liviu Dragnea to be with me, considering that he coordinated the team, being the one who drafted this governing programme, in order to help me to implement it. And it is a simple thing, because it is a very clear programme, but at the same time a very complicated one, being a complex programme, which refers to almost all the aspects of our lives,” Grindeanu added.
ALDE’s Tariceanu after Grindeanu’s proposal for Premier: A second negative answer by president Iohannis, suicidal
A second negative answer by president Klaus Iohannis on the new proposal for Prime Minister made by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) would be ‘suicidal’, said on Wednesday evening the co-Chair of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, adding that in such a case the only solution would be to launch the procedure to suspend the president.
“I don’t wish to get there, I want to be very clear. I have tried in the talks I had with my colleagues and the PSD ones to do whatever it takes to avoid such a situation, but the violation of the Constitution cannot be tolerated, the attitude of contempt towards citizens, towards the vote of the citizens cannot be tolerated, so at some point something has to be done,” Tariceanu told a news conference.
He specified that the nomination of Sorin Grindeanu for Prime Minister is ‘the political answer’ the PSD-ALDE majority has given following the ‘political crisis’ unleashed by the ‘groundless refusal’ by the head of estate to designated Sevil Shhaideh to make a government.
“We are in crisis situation I didn’t imagine we’d be in again”
President of the Senate and Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) co-Chair Calin Popescu-Tariceanu stated earlier on Wednesday, that Romania is in a political crisis situation similar to the moments that marked the head of state mandates of Traian Basescu.
“I am referring to the political situation in which we are now, a crisis situation that I wouldn’t have imagined we’d be in again. I can see again the moments that have marked the mandate of the previous president, Traian Basescu, the moments of major political crisis that Romania has gone through. I want to emphasize that our intention, that of ALDE [Alliance of Liberals and Democrats] and of PSD [Social Democrat Party], is to avoid at any costs a political crisis, because a political crisis has unfavorable consequences for Romania on multiple levels – politically, economically – and the effects are seen immediately. There is concern at the level of society, a fear that people feel. Unfortunately, our constitutional demarche based on the December 11 elections was disregarded by the President,” Tariceanu stated, at the Parliament Palace.
He emphasized that President Iohannis should justify the refusal to designate the Prime Minister proposed by PSD and ALDE.
“The designation that the President should have done was refused with no sort of justification, matter that is inexplicable in a modern, democratic society. Such a refusal should have been accompanied by a minimum justification, so that the President’s action not be interpreted as arbitrary, as an abuse of power, an abuse of authority, as it is right now,” Tariceanu added.
He stated again that, together with the Social-Democrat leaders, they have decided to take a moment of political reflection to find a solution to avoid the political crisis and the leadership forums of the PSD and ALDE will meet separately to make a decision which they will later on coordinate.
Senate Speaker: President’s considerations, I believe, are intimidation attempt in hope we get cold feet
Tariceanu stated on Tuesday evening that the head of state attempted to form center-right alliance, other than that resulting from elections.
“In this discussions, I emphasize, I was not alone, I was with my colleague, ALDE co-Chair Daniel Constantin, so there are witnesses to this discussion, the President was alone. The President presented his wish to form a majority different than the one resulting from the elections, on the center-right area, consisting of the PNL [National Liberal Party], ALDE, USR [Save Romania Union], PMP [People’s Movement Party], UDMR [Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania], plus the minorities, which on paper would have had a little over 50 pct, but would have obviously disregarded the majority option of the electorate. What was surprising for me (…), this proposal was joined by a series of considerations of the President that I believe were more part of a bluff, meaning an attempt to intimidate us, me and my colleague, in the hopes we get cold feet and we accept such a formula,” said Tariceanu, at private broadcaster Antena 3.
He showed that “the President is making a huge mistake, because he wants to copy Basescu, who was a master in poker”. ” I am not a poker player, I don’t know poker, I don’t like poker and I do not accept poker into politics. I do not play poker, I am not willing to play poker,” the ALDE leader added.
Tariceanu said that President Iohannis tried to determine them to change their attitude.
“The formula that he used was a clear one. He said: ‘I will not accept under any circumstance a PSD [Social Democrat Party] Government with a PSD Prime Minister. It’s a battle to which I commit and I will go all the way. And be careful, you in ALDE, because you will fall into this war which is not yours.’ I considered it’s a bluff to determine us to change our attitude. (…) At the time I considered it a threat, but with a political purpose, to obtain the creation of a center-right majority,” Tariceanu detailed, showing that he felt compelled to draw the attention of the President towards the result of the election.
In his opinion, the head of state refused the proposal made by PSD and ALDE out of a desire to make a gesture of “absolute authority”, to show the country that he is the one to lead the political game in Romania.
Furthermore, he said that the President wants to force PSD and ALDE’s hand for them to suspend him, considering that the suspension can “recharge him, reinvent him as happened with Basescu in 2007 and give him additional power to continue his mandate until 2019.”
Tariceanu showed that he discussed with the Social Democrats about the possibility of constituting a special parliamentary committee to analyze the position of the President, mentioning at the same time that PSD-ALDE do not wish to fall into the trap of “setting off a major political crisis.”
“That is why we considered that it is useful to take some time to think, to see what is the best solution. I don’t believe that at this moment a clash of vanities must take center stage. It’s the most damaging thing. We do not want to let ourselves be engaged in a war that affects not only political institutions, but the entire country. I do not have an answer. We are trying to find a political solution, so the entire house doesn’t go up in flames, but we cannot be mere witnesses to the attitude to desconsider the Constitution and the vote of citizens without having in view the other possibility that the President believes we will use – the suspension,” Tariceanu added.
UDMR’s Kelemen: Parliamentary collaboration agreement with PSD-ALDE in force; however we cannot give blank check to anyone
The parliamentary collaboration agreement between the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) and the coalition formed by the Social Democrat Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) remains in force, yet as regards a new nomination for the position of Prime Minister, the Union cannot give a blank check to anyone, said, on Wednesday the UDMR chairman, Kelemen Hunor.
“That agreement remains in force, because we are speaking of parliamentary collaboration and when we said that we await the nomination we said it in the sense of providing support for the vote of investiture. The vote of investiture and parliamentary collaboration are two things that are, not totally different, but they can very well be separated and no-one gives a blank check to anyone, in politics anyway. At the moment we will find out who is the PSD-ALDE’s nomination, we can say if we support the Government’s investiture. Anyway, they have a majority without us anyway, that is not the problem, but we cannot give a blank check, because they may come with a person that we may not agree with for various reasons. That is why our position is one that is extremely correct, transparent and honest,” stated Kelemen Hunor at the Parliament Palace.
He added that President Klaus Iohannis is allowed by the Constitution to decide whether he accepts or not a nomination for the position of Prime Minister, the only observation made by the UDMR leader being that the rejection of Sevil Shhaideh should have been argumented.
The UDMR leader also mentioned that there cannot be talk about a political crisis in Romania, but the leaders of the governing coalition and President Klaus Iohannis should have a discussion and together find a cohabitation solution.
PSD’s Dragnea: Not sure, but I don’t think any Intelligence Service influenced President’s decision
The head of the Social Democrat Party (PSD), Liviu Dragnea, stated on Tuesday that he does not think any intelligence service has influenced the head of state’s decision to not designate Sevil Shhaideh for the Prime Minister position.
“I am not sure, but I do not think that any intelligence service, at least I do not think that the SRI [Romanian Intelligence Service], has influenced this decision. That is what I think, maybe I have a wrong opinion. I have only evaluations. Because SRI has approved her both when she was appointed State Secretary, as well as when appointed Minister, and she was married to the same person. What it has come to – to destroy a family, to hear and to see things that remind me of the Middle Ages, xenophobia, and theories like from cartoons, you know this shows a big desperation on the part of some. I want to tell them something: we have the majority in the Parliament, I feel sorry that they have not been aware of this. We even have the majority in the Parliament and the Parliament, as I said when being elected the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, is the place where laws are made, but it is also the place where the abuses generated by certain laws are stopped. I cannot endlessly delay the matter with the Government, but the Parliament has the supreme power in this state”, Dragnea stated.
He stated that he does not have any reproach to himself for proposing Sevil Shhaideh for the Prime Minister position.
“I guarantee you that any other proposal by PSD or, anyway, maybe with two – three exceptions, who went to a certain academy, would’ve been found to have been Al-Qaeda sympathies since childhood”, the leader of Social Democrats stated.
