Romania’s prime minister Mihai Tudose announced his resignation on Monday evening, during the Social Democratic Party’s executive committee meeting, according to political sources quoted by local news agency Mediafax. Most of PSD’s executive committee members voted in favor of withdrawing political support for the PM, according to the same sources.

When getting out of the executive committee meeting, Mihai Tudose told the journalists that he would go to the Government headquarters to take his stuff and that he would not sit in as interim PM until a new cabinet is invested by the Parliament.

The PM's resignation means that his cabinet will be dismissed. President Klaus Iohannis will have to nominate a new PM who has to come up with a new team and get the Parliament's vote.

PSD president Liviu Dragnea said he would let his colleagues come up with proposals for the new PM this time. "It seems I don't have a good hand for picking prime ministers," Dragnea said in a press conference.

Tudose is the second PSD prime minister forced to leave office after only six months, after a clash with party leader Liviu Dragnea. In June 2017, PSD overthrew its own Government by no-confidence motion only to get rid of former PM Sorin Grindeanu, who refused to take orders from Dragnea any more.

The open conflict between Mihai Tudose and Liviu Dragnea started in October 2017, when the PM asked for the removal of three ministers from his cabinet, including deputy prime minister and development minister Sevil Shhaideh, one of Dragnea's most trusted collaborators. Tudose won that round and got the cabinet reshuffle he asked for.

The tensions within the governing party started to rise again at the end of last year and in the first weeks of this year, when Tudose asked for a restructuring of his cabinet aimed at reducing the number of ministries. The political commentators saw this as a first step in Tudose's plan to reduce Dragnea's influence in the Government. The party's executive committee postponed a decision for the end of January, but Tudose seemed to be gaining support among other PSD leaders.

However, the tensions continued to rise, especially after the case of a pedophile cop started a huge scandal between the Interior Ministry and its main subordinated institution, the Romanian Police. Interior minister Carmen Dan, one of Dragnea's protegees, asked for the Romanian Police head's resignation but Mihai Tudose refused to dismiss the Police head. He accused the interior minister of lying when she said she had a replacement for the position and said he couldn't work with her anymore. He also suggested that she should resign, if she were allowed, a remark aimed at his party leader.

The tensions within the cabinet determined several PSD local leaders to call for an executive committee meeting to clear things between the PM and the party leader. While the leaders of some important PSD organizations declared their support for Tudose and said he should continue as PM others said he should take a step back, unhappy with the fact that he didn't consult with the party leadership on some important decisions.

In the meeting, Tudose said he would resign if the executive committee members voted for this. In the end, only four members of the executive committee voted against the proposal that the party should withdraw political support for him. Four other members abstained while 59 voted for the proposal.

The PSD leadership will meet on Tuesday morning to come up with a new PM proposal. President Klaus Iohannis will then have to decide if he accepts PSD's proposal or he calls other political parties for consultations. The new PM will have to come up with a new team and get the Parliament's vote. While many of the current ministers may continue in the new cabinet, some have already announced they would resign, according to Hotnews.ro. The ministers that will leave include transport minister Felix Stroe, deputy PM Marcel Ciolacu, EU funds minister Marius Nica, who have openly supported Tudose.

Meanwhile, deputy prime minister and development minister Paul Stanescu is likely to run the government until a new PM is appointed.

editor@romania-insider.com