PM Citu: Our mandate still not flexible - minority gov't PNL-UDMR; PSD, USR made no compromise

PNL (National Liberal Party) leader Florin Citu said on Thursday that PNL's mandate hasn't become more flexible and that he still wants to support a PNL-UDMR (Democratic Union of Hungarians of Romania) minority government, noting at the same time that the Liberals have taken "an important step" and showed that they understand "the importance of the moment Romania is going through," while PSD (Social Democratic Party) and USR (Save Romania Union) have made "no compromise."

"I will reiterate what I said after proposing Mr Nicolae Ciuca. The PNL has taken an important step, it has shown that it understands the importance of the moment that Romania is going through, while I haven't seen any intention to compromise from the USR or PSD, until today, until this moment. They said [PSD - editor's note] that they do not want to come to power, which is OK, good, but vote for this government. The same with USR, which left the government, vote for this government. We can talk, it's a minority government, it's clear that it can't stay for a very long time. We can go back in 8 months, 9 months and check on the situation again. But right now it's clear that PNL is the only party that understands the importance of the moment, understands what Romania is going through. The other parties only make statements and that's about all. I've seen today that they are talking now about a technocrat government. So things are like these: PSD does not want to be a part of the government, but it wants a technocrat government, so what do they actually mean? The only part that has made a firm decision and has shown that it wants to solve the crisis is PNL," said Citu, agerpres reports.

He said the list of ministers would be ready by Saturday and the government should be appointed by next week.

Asked if the PNL would accept a technocratic government led by Nicolae Ciuca, Citu said that this proposal had not been made, there are only scenarios.

Asked if he will have a discussion on Thursday with the head of state about the possibility that USR joins the government again, Citu that it's the President who requests these meetings.

"First of all, I don't know if we will have a discussion with the President of Romania today for these meetings are always requested by the President and I don't know if we will have this meeting. Secondly, our mandate has not become flexible, it's the same mandate, PNL-UDMR. Of course, appointed Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca must have discussions in order to convince the parties to support us with a vote in Parliament, to support an interim government," added Citu.

He reiterated that "the PNL has shown maturity, responsibility, while the other parties say that it is not enough and that is still PNL's job to propose another solution."

"I would like to see (...), in the end, if these parties understand the importance of the moment and understand that this is about Romanians, we vote for this minority government, because I have not seen other variants. I have seen a monochromatic government from USR, while now we have a government formed by PNL, UDMR, supported by minorities, so it's the largest majority that could have been gathered or the broadest support that a party has been able to gather, so we go with this government," said Florin Citu.

The PNL leader added that he does not understand the discussions about PSD making the government.

"If PSD does not want to govern, I do not understand the discussion about PSD making the government. When they said clearly from the beginning of the year that you do not want to govern. So something is not right, there is a fracture of logic there. On the other hand, USR left the government, and I don't understand again, there is again a fracture of logic in this too, since at this point PNL has made a major compromise and the PNL leader has proposed another person for the office of prime minister, we have this option on the table right now, and there is no other option to talk about, we don't have a mandate," Citu also mentioned.