Defense Minister Teodor Melescanu officially nominated for Justice Ministry job

The leadership of Romania’s governing National Liberal Party (PNL) approved on Monday the nomination of Teodor Melescanu for the seat of Justice minister, left vacant since late last year. The head of the Senate commission in charge with monitoring Romanian Intelligence Service activities, Radu Stroe, was nominated to take over the seat of Defense minister which would be left vacant by Melescanu.

The seat of Justice minister was at the center of the latest major confrontation between arch-rivals President Traian Basescu and PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu, who has proposed harline PNL senator, Norica Nicolai, for the job only to have the nomination challenged by President Basescu.

Also on Monday, the Liberals named Georgeta Ionescu, who’s been serving as secretary general for the House of Deputies, in the position of state secretary within the Defense Ministry. The restructuring of the government and the option of organizing early elections, which were speculated about in the media today, were not considered at the meeting of the PNL leadership.

The Liberal nominees need the approval of President Basescu. In a newspaper interview, Elena Udrea declared that the President has every right to reject the new proposal. However, the Constitutional Court recently ruled that the President can veto only once a Chancellery proposal for a top ministry job.