President Klaus Iohannis will consult, at the Cotroceni Palace, on Wednesday, with the parliamentary parties and groups to designate a candidate for the post of prime minister.
President Klaus Iohannis sent a letter on Tuesday to the chairs of political parties and groups represented in Parliament, inviting them to consultations at the Cotroceni Palace in view of designating a candidate for prime minister, the Presidential Administration informs in a release.
Each delegation can be made up of a maximum of five persons, the quoted source informs.
According to the head of state’s agenda, the consultations will start at 12:00 hrs and will be held with representatives of the PSD – ALDE Alliance, USR, PMP, UDMR and also with representatives of the parliamentary group of national minorities.
Viorica Dancila is PSD’s nomination for PM’s office. Unanimous vote after two other options were withdrawn
MEP Viorica Dancila is PSD’s nomination for the office of Premier, following Mihai Tudose’s resignation, after Ecaterina Andronescu – another option taken into account – refused the proposition from the start.
Viorica Dancila won a majority of votes, the members of PSD’s National Executive Committee applauding after the results were announced.
PSD Vaslui President Dumitru Buzatu stated on Tuesday, after the Executive Committee meeting, that a majority of Social Democrats voted for Viorica Dancila to be the party’s nomination for the office of Premier, after Ecaterina Andronescu refused the proposition. The option of nominating Petre Daea was also discussed, but the person who tabled the proposition subsequently withdrew it.
“I didn’t nominate her. Ecaterina Andronescu refused, expressing her support for Mrs Dancila. (…) We are preparing for a longer governance. Looking at the way our colleagues expressed themselves, one can notice unanimous support for the Premier designated today,” PSD Vaslui President Dumitru Buzatu said.
PSD’s Dragnea on fresh nomination for Prime Minister: It was a new procedure in CExN of PSD
The procedure by which Viorica Dancila was nominated for the office of Prime Minister was a new one for the National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party (CExN of PSD), Liviu Dragnea emphasized.
“We held a CExN meeting after last night’s decision to discuss and establish together about our proposal for Prime Minister, to be submitted to the Romanian President. It was a new procedure for the CExN, with several proposals having been made, each of them supported with arguments by the ones who made them, and we had a very good discussions and we have all reached the conclusion that this kind of discussions are the best and the most sound. In the end we voted for Mrs. Viorica Dancila – the head of the PSD delegation to the European Parliament, with only one abstention,” Dragnea told a press conference held at the PSD headquarters.
He also added that another proposal for Prime Minister was Ecaterina Andronescu, who is PSD Vice-President, but she withdrew her candidacy close to the end of the meeting.
“I also asked my colleagues to agree to have a dialogue with Mrs. Viorica Dancila before voting on this proposal. I asked her many questions, my colleagues also asked her very many questions that were mostly generated by the causes that have created this situation for us. There were civilized questions that received civilized answers and my intention was to make Mrs. Viorica Dancila, if she is accepted to by the Romanian President, aware of the risks she will be facing and of the mistakes she could make, which could lead to a tensed relation with the colleagues from the party or with members from the Government or to a faulty communication. Mrs. Viorica Dancila was proposed by Niculae Badalau. Moreover, our colleagues from the women organization also endorsed this proposal. It was a good discussion, a good meeting and I hope that it will end good after the President receives this proposal,” said the PSD leader in more detail.
According to him, Dancila never abandoned the governing programme of the PSD, neither the initiatives of improving Justice Laws.
Dragnea: Viorica Dancila is a civilised, non-conflictual, very communicative woman and she has a good relationship with European Commission officials
PSD President Liviu Dragnea stated on Tuesday, at the end of the Executive Committee meeting, that Viorica Dancila, the party’s nomination for the Premier’s office, is a civilised, non-conflictual woman who has good relations with Brussels, and this will help Romania in taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“She has been MEP since January 2009, respected in Brussels, with very good relations, because she is a civilised woman, a non-conflictual woman, she is very communicative, has a good relationship with European Commission officials too. For us, this also represents a signal for Brussels, because the need for the Romanian Government’s relations with the Commission to be much better, for them to have more frequent meetings, is being felt,” Dragnea stated.
The Social Democrats’ leader also stated that Romania must be prepared to take over the presidency of the European Council: “We must prepare very well, it will be an extremely important period for Romania in what concerns the takeover of the presidency of the European Council, and Viorica Dancila’s relations will help both Romania and the President.”
“The fact that she knows her stuff in Brussels, the fact that she knows the officials there, she knows the procedures, will help her very much, will help us very much, including the Romanian President, so that this year’s preparations for the takeover of the presidency will be on schedule. She is very respected inside the party, she never came into conflict with anyone from the party. This is a guarantee for all colleagues that Viorica Dancila will not have an activity, will not generate actions, that would bring us to the two situations we have overcome,” Liviu Dragnea added.
Asked about the projects in which Viorica Dancila was involved and which recommend her for the office of Prime Minister, the PSD leader pointed out she did not want to take part in the press conference because she wants to hold a press conference only if appointed in office by President Iohannis.
When journalists insisted, asking him to name at least one of Dancila’s projects that prompted him to vote for her at the NatExCom meeting, Liviu Dragnea stated he does not want to speak on behalf of Viorica Dancila.
“Viorica Dancila supports the judicial laws overture”
Dragnea added that Viorica Dancila, nominated by the Social Democrats for the office of Premier, supports PSD’s overture concerning the judicial laws.
Asked about Viorica Dancila’s support for the judicial laws, Liviu Dragnea stated: “Viorica Dancila never recanted the governance programme, the overtures to improve the judicial laws, and she supports this endeavour.”
PSD national leader: The activity of each of the current ministers will be assessed very seriously
Dragnea also stated that there is a chance a part of the current ministers of the Cabinet to still be a part of the next government and he said that “the activity of each minister will be assessed very seriously.”
“There is a chance, but only after each minister’s activity is assessed very seriously (…), and if we propose that some of the current ministers to be left aside then we shall have serious arguments for that. What I say is that we will have a discussion first, maybe painful for some, but still necessary,” Dragnea told a press conference held at the PSD headquarters.
Asked if an assessment of the ministers will be done at the net CExN meeting, the PSD head said: “It should be.” However, he said that they will analyze the data and the manner in which the ministers observed the governing programme.
He also said that, “unfortunately”, Prime Minister Mihai Tudose did not receive a serious assessment of the secretaries of state from all the members of his Cabinet.
“We will make it in the next interval. We have already started. Our colleagues from both the Government and the party began to organize and in a short while we will have the assessment of each secretary of state’s activity and we will see how each of them got there,” said the PSD leader.
PSD’s Dragnea to go to Cotroceni with delegation made up of three Social-Democrats and two ALDE members
Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea announced that a PSD – Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) delegation will participate in the consultations that are to take place on Wednesday at Cotroceni Presidential Palace, with President Klaus Iohannis, in order to designate a candidate for the Prime Minister office.
“We have discussed the topic today, because we said we will never again go to Cotroceni, in the current mandate, but when I said it, I didn’t think we would have to go to a new round of consultations,” Dragnea stated Tuesday at the PSD headquarters.
He mentioned that he will be part of the delegation made up of PSD’s Secretary General Marian Neacsu and another Social-Democrat, whose name hasn’t yet been set out, as well as two ALDE representatives.
Who is Viorica Dancila
Viorica Dancila is a MEP, member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. She had a previous stint in the European Parliament in 2009-2014.
Dancila is close to PSD President Liviu Dragnea, the latter endorsing her as head of the delegation of Romanian MEPs in the European Parliament, a position she currently holds.
Moreover, Dancila is from Teleorman County, where she was leader of PSD Videle’s women’s organisation and member of the county council.
Vasilica Viorica Dancila was born on Dec. 16, 1963, in Rosiori de Vede, the southern Teleorman county.
She graduated from the Faculty of Well Drilling and Exploitation of Hydrocarbon Deposits, in Ploiesti in 1988. Dancila got a Master’s Degree on the European Public Space at Bucharest National School of Political and Administrative Studies. She is specialized in project programming and management, the oil economy bases and decision-making, an expert in legislative harmonization – European integration.
Dancila worked as an engineer at Oil Company Petrom SA – a OMV Group member – during 1998 – 2009, at Videle Operation Area, the Oil and Gas Production Monitoring Service.
She has been a Social Democrat Party (PSD) member since 1996. She has been heading the PSD Women’s County Organization since 2005; the PSD Euro-deputies group leader in the European Parliament (March 2010 – March 2011); a vice president of the PSD National Women’s Organization (2010 till today).
Dancila became a Social Democrat MEP on Jan. 21, 2009, after Titus Corlatean and Catalin Nechifor left the European Parliament to take up as Romanian parliamentarians. At the European Parliament, Dancila was an alternate member of the Commission on budget control and the Delegation for the relation with Mashrek countries and a full member of the Commission for budgets and the Delegation for the relations with Israel.
She was elected a MEP on the PSD+PC list at the June 7, 2009 polls. She is a member in the European Parliament’s Commission for agriculture and rural development, the Delegation for the relation with Mashrek countries and the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean.
PSD’s Viorica Dancila on taking over PM Office: I am an optimistic, balanced person and I need to think positively
Social Democrat Viorica Dancila on Tuesday stated that she has the necessary experience for taking over the office of Prime Minister, which she is not afraid of for she is an “optimistic” and “balanced” person, while also adding that “she needs to think positively” too.
Dancila made this statement at the PSD (Social Democratic Party) headquarters, when asked if she was not afraid that she will stay at the Government too little, considering the previous Social Democratic Governments, the Grindeanu and Tudose Cabinets respectively.
She specified that, before taking over, she will discuss with ex-Prime Minister Tudose, if she is appointed by President Klaus Iohannis.
“Most definitely, I will discuss with everyone, they are all my colleagues,” said Dancila.
When asked about her projects in the European Parliament, she said that these are available on the Website and that she will answer all questions as soon as Mr. President will approve my appointment in office. It is too early to say now,” she said.
