Romanian President rejects government reshuffle, says he is certain PSD Executive cannot remain in office

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday said he „wholly” rejected a series of changes to the government team proposed by PM Viorica Dancila several days ago. He also said in a speech that the current government needed a new confirmation in Parliament after the governing coalition broke earlier this week. Unless it received renewed parliamentary support, „all opposition parties” would have to „show reasonable behaviour in case of crisis”.

• UPDATE On Wednesday evening, PM Dancila said her government would seek the necessary support in the Parliament. She said the government would stay in office because it was its responsibility before the people and accused the president of using his presidential prerogatives to block government activities.

President Iohannis’ statement was the first position after a series of major events affecting the government at a key political moment:

• Last week, PM Dancila proposed a series of changes to the government team, including the replacement of Justice minister Ana Birchall with a new minister, Dana Garbovan, who has been subject of major criticism. The US Attorney General later intervened with a show of support for Birchall and an invitation for her to visit Washington
• During the weekend, the governing Social Democratic Party (PSD) chose to support PM Dancila for a run in presidential elections later this year, when she would confront president Klaus Iohannis, who seeks a new term
• On Monday, PSD’s minority partner ALDE decided to leave the governing coalition, leaving the PSD without clear parliamentary support. The PSD said it was ready to retain government

In his intervention today, Iohannis again attacked the PSD government, saying their interests were „above the interests of citizens”. He said the European Parliament elections in May, where the PSD suffered heavy losses, would have had the party leave government in a normal country.

He rejected any reshuffle of the current government and called all proposed changes „unacceptable”.

He said the government needed to receive a new confirmation of support in the Parliament by using a procedure he urged the Executive to launch. He said that should the new configuration be rejected in the Parliament, Romania has the constitutional means to avoid a deep crisis.