President Klaus Iohannis signed on Thursday the decree finding the vacancy of the Development and Transport Ministries portfolios.
According to a release of the Presidential Administration, the head of state signed the decree finding the vacancy for a seat as member of the Government through the resignation of Paul Stanescu from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration offices and the decree finding the vacancy for a seat as member of the Government through the resignation of Lucian Sova from the Transport Minister office.
On 20 November 2018, President Klaus Iohannis signed the reshuffle of the ministers proposed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), except that of the two ministers [Paul Stanescu and Lucian Sova], arguing that the replacement proposals of the latter ministers, namely Lia Olguta Vasilescu and Ilan Laufer are unfit.
Subsequently, Mircea Draghici was proposed to take over the Transport portfolio and Lia Olguta Vasilescu to take over the Ministry of Regional Development.
On 22 November, Lucian Sova tendered his resignation as Minister of Transport and, on 26 November, Paul Stanescu also resigned from the Regional Development Minister office.
The Government notified the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) about the conflict with President Iohannis and the Court decided that the head of state didn’t exercise his constitutional duties by not taking not of the vacancy of the two minister offices and not finding the vacancy of the offices.
PSD’s Stefanescu: We have no ministers to discuss with partners in Europe because Iohannis won’t sign
Social Democratic Party (PSD) Secretary General Codrin Stefanescu said on Thursday at Realitatea private TV station that President Klaus Iohannis has signed the decrees for the vacancy of the two posts of ministers – Transport and Regional Development, but has not made any announcement regarding the Government’s proposals for new ministers.
“Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis today has signed two decrees on the vacancy of a Government member by the resignations of the two ministers, namely Mr. Paul Stanescu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development, and Lucian Sova, Minister of Transport. At the same time, Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis refused to make an announcement regarding the proposals advanced by the Government, namely Lia Olguta Vasilescu for Development and Mircea Draghici for Transport,” Codrin Stefanescu said.
He explained that by the fact that the two new ministers were not appointed, the situation gets complicated in the context of Romania taking over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“Every minister of the Romanian Government will preside over the next period a small council of ministers within the European Union, on the specifics of each ministry. That is, in Transport and Development we will have … no council of ministers in Europe because we do not have ministers,” the secretary general of social-democrats said.
Codrin Stefanescu reminded that the representatives of the other member states expect to discuss strategic cooperation and development plans at these meetings and, under the given conditions, there are no dialogue partners.
The PSD secretary general opines that through his gesture, President Iohannis blocks not only the Government, but the whole country.
He also said that the idea of suspending President Iohannis is discussed both in the party and in the coalition, but until its initiation, things need to be analyzed very carefully.
