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Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos nominated on Tuesday state secretary Corina Suteu for culture minister, as minister Vlad Alexandrescu has been dismissed, the Government announced in a media release.
"As I had announced last week, I have decided today to revoke Mr. Vlad Alexandrescu from the position of culture minister. I have also sent today to President Klaus Iohannis the proposition to nominate as culture minister Mrs. Corina Suteu, as I wish to continue the reform process," the document quotes PM Ciolos as saying.
"I have recommended today to Mr President the dismissal from office of Mr Vlad Alexandrescu as minister of culture and his replacement with Mrs Corina Suteu. I will not dwell on this dismissal, but the way in which a minister operates and reacts in a crisis, such as the crisis at the Bucharest National Opera, is decisive to his or her capability of and credibility to manage his or her portfolio and solve similar consequent situations in a professional field such as culture. Nevertheless, I am regretting having reached this point, and particularly the way in which Mr Alexandrescu understood to end his tenure. Yet, I want to extend my thanks to him for his good initiatives in this area while in office, and I also want to confirm interest in and determination to continue the reform of the area by appointing Mrs Suteu, whom I have known for a long time and who has worked on the reform programme of the Culture Ministry," Ciolos says in a Facebook post.
He adds that he will ask the new culture minister "to rapidly think of a legislative framework allowing some organisations such as the National Opera to combine stock performances with new ones and open up to international collaborations while providing a balanced social and financial status to Romanian values."
Ciolos says the Government will continue public fundraising initiatives for Brancusi's sculpture ''Wisdom of the Earth'' while intending to promote after this year's locals elections "viable development alternatives" for the inhabitants of the Rosia Montana site, the place of a controversial gold mining project. "Under a decision I promoted late last year, Rosia Montana became a category A UNESCO heritage site and that is how it stays. As I told Mr Alexandrescu, we have to exceed this protection and provide viable development alternatives to the locals. Immediately after the local elections, we intend to come up with ideas related to that. On the other hand, reforms of the national heritage and filmmaking industry will be continued," says Ciolos.
