Romania’s ruling left proposes new PM
BUCHAREST: Romania’s ruling left proposed outgoing economy minister Mihai Tudose as new premier on Monday, days after taking the extraordinary step of torpedoing its own government following an internal power row.
The Social Democrat party (PSD) filed a no-confidence motion in former prime minister Sorin Grindeanu last Wednesday, accusing him of “delays” in implementing reforms in the EU’s second-poorest country.
The PSD is now expected to ask center-right President Klaus Iohannis to sign off on 50-year-old Tudose who holds a PhD in military science.
If Iohannis gives his seal of approval, MPs are likely to vote on Tudose’s nomination on Thursday — a formality given that the PSD holds a parliamentary majority with its ALDE ally.
The PSD unexpectedly withdrew its support for 43-year-old Grindeanu on June 14, barely six months after the party swept back to victory in elections.
Grindeanu however refused to resign and accused powerful PSD boss Liviu Dragnea, 54, of seeking to “concentrate all the power in his hands.”
Dragnea, who is barred from running for office because of a fraud conviction, is widely acknowledged to pull the strings behind the scenes.
But Grindeanu, once considered Dragnea’s puppet, began to assert his independence in recent months, which reportedly led to his fall from grace.
Romanian media on Monday highlighted the fact that Tudose was one of the ministers held responsible for the failure of Grindeanu’s government to implement reforms.
It is the second major crisis to hit the PSD since it rode back into power in December, barely a year after being forced from office over a deadly nightclub blaze blamed on corruption.
In February, Romania’s largest protests since the fall of communism forced the government to drop a bill aimed at watering down anti-corruption laws that critics said would help Dragnea himself.