Romania’s prime minister Florin Citu announced on Wednesday morning, September 8, that he sent president Klaus Iohannis the resignations of USR-PLUS ministers from the government, together with the proposals for interim ministers. Later the same day, president Iohannis signed off on the resignations and the appointment of interim ministers.

Thus, PM Florin Citu will take over as interim minister of investments and European projects, replacing Cristian Ghinea. Meanwhile, finance minister Dan Vilceanu will also act as the interim transport minister (replacing Catalin Drula), while energy minister Virgil-Daniel Popescu will be the interim economy minister (replacing Claudiu Nasui).

The USR-PLUS minister of research and digitalization, Ciprian Teleman, also resigned from the government, and environment minister Tanczos Barna is set to replace him. At the same time, the development and public works minister Cseke Attila will take over as the interim health minister, replacing the former USR-PLUS minister Ioana Mihaila.

The junior ruling party USR-PLUS decided to pull its ministers out of the government earlier this week, amid a growing political crisis that started after prime minister Florin Citu dismissed USR-PLUS justice minister Stelian Ion. In response, USR-PLUS withdrew its support for PM Citu and called for negotiations for naming another prime minister.

PM Florin Citu refused to resign, and thus USR-PLUS filed a no-confidence motion against him. The motion, however, has been stuck in parliamentary procedures. In addition, according to Digi24, prime minister Citu announced on Wednesday that the government would ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the no-confidence motion filed by USR-PLUS and AUR, which he considers to have been filed illegally.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)