The joint standing bureaus of the Lower House and Senate have been convened for Friday, at 3 p.m., to establish the timetable of the special committee’s confirmation hearings of the members of the Cabinet led by Viorica Dancila.
After PSD’s National Executive Committee (NatExCom) meeting, scheduled to start on Friday at 11 a.m., which will decide the makeup of the Government, the Premier-designate is expected to lodge with Parliament the list of ministers.
After President Klaus Iohannis named Viorica Dancila as Premier, PSD President Liviu Dragnea stated that the Cabinet will be confirmed by Parliament on January 29.
“We will convene Parliament in an extraordinary sitting, compressing [the procedures] as much as the Constitution and the regulations of the two Chambers allow us, so that on January 29 we would have the confirmation vote. Likewise, PSD’s NatExCom will be convened on Monday, to start talks on the makeup of the new Cabinet,” Dragnea had stated.
According to the procedure, once the Government is confirmed by Parliament, the ministers will go to the Cotroceni Presidential Palace to be sworn in.
Ruling coalition meeting in Liviu Dragnea’s office. List of ministers discussed by inner circle
Liviu Dragnea, Calin Popescu Tariceanu and Daniel Chitoiu met on Thursday in the office of the House Speaker, against the backdrop in which the Social Democratic Party’s (PSD) National Executive Committee (NatExCom) will validate the list of ministers and the governance programme on Friday.
PSD’s ExCom will convene on Friday, in order to establish the final makeup of the Dancila Government, with Parliament’s confirmation hearings and confirmation vote set to take place on Monday, January 29.
According to the statements made so far by PSD leaders, the Dancila Government will have the same structure as the Tudose Government, namely one Premier, 3 Deputy Premiers – one without portfolio –, and 26 ministerial portfolios, 2 of the ministers set to be ministers-delegate. Overall, the new Cabinet will have 28 members, just like the previous one.
Rumoured ministers
Sevil Shhaideh – Secretary General of the Government
Rovana Plumb – Deputy Premier
Eugen Teodorovici – European Grants Minister
Sorin Bota or Razvan Cuc – Transport Minister
Paul Stanescu, Tudorel Toader and Ionut Misa would keep their portfolios
Justice Minister Tudorel Toader will hold the same portfolio in the Dancila Government too, as independent minister, not having political stripes and being simply endorsed by the PSD-ALDE ruling coalition, political sources told Mediafax.
“Tudorel Toader is not assumed by PSD, nor by ALDE. He is basically endorsed by the coalition, as a political independent minister, because we want an apolitical minister at the helm of this portfolio,” the aforementioned sources pointed out.
The backers of ex-Premier Mihai Tudose – Marcel Ciolacu (Deputy Premier without portfolio), Felix Stroe (Transport Ministry), Marius Nica (Minister-delegate for European Grants) – will not be members of the future Government.
The Social Democrats accused Tudose and Ciolacu of being the backers of the “deep state.” The accusations were levelled during the NatExCom meeting in which the withdrawal of political support for the former Government was decided. Marius Nica, Minister-delegate for European Grants, resigned last Friday, even though the Cabinet was considered outgoing as a result of the Premier’s resignation.
