Ludovic Orban: I will not vote for Ciuca Government, I will resign from PNL parliamentary group

Deputy Ludovic Orban announced on Thursday that he will not vote for the Ciuca Government, and next week he will resign from the National Liberal Party (PNL) parliamentary group.

"I will definitely not vote for the Ciuca Government, and for me this is the last straw. Next week I will resign from the PNL parliamentary group. (...) For me, both Iohannis and the illegitimate leadership, the demolition clique, as I call those who called themselves the 'winning team', seriously betrayed the interests of Romanian citizens (...). They put on hold Romania's future and Romania's chance at an honest development with a coalition that had a government program, had a coalition agreement, we had agreed on the great reforms we had to carry out. Here that now all the agreements that have been made are blown up and I really can't find any rational explanation for the totally harmful behavior to the interests of Romania of President Iohannis," Orban told private broadcaster B1 TV.

He maintained that the PNL no longer exists, having a leadership "without any backbone" and "full of obedience".

"Basically, the PNL no longer exists, the statutory forums no longer exist. The PNL is a will-less extension that no longer takes into account the will of the citizens, of the party members. It is simply an obedient leadership that has no backbone, no opinions and no thoughts, being dictated," he said.

Ludovic Orban also said that the Ciuca Government will be invested "at the mercy of PSD [the Social Democratic Party]" and will not be able to carry out reforms in Romania.

"For me, Iohannis' decision to force the PNL leadership to impose Ciuca based on a deal with PSD (...) is a serious betrayal of the voters who voted for Klaus Iohannis in both the first and second rounds and a serious betrayal of voters who voted PNL precisely to war off the PSD government, to form a right-wing governing coalition, to ensure a government for the development of Romania. (...) Today, through a minority government invested at PSD's mercy, without a parliamentary majority to support the necessary reforms for modernization, for development, to do justice to different social categories, will simply be a government without any capacity to make reforms in Romania, to ensure Romania's development," added Orban.