PM-designate Ciolos: If we have the PM, claims to rediscuss certain portfolios are normal

Prime Minister-designate Dacian Ciolos said on Tuesday that it was normal for the other political parties, in re-establishing the ruling coalition with a head of government from USR (Save Romania Union), to have certain claims to reconsider the redistribution of portfolios.

"I don't think there will be a blockage here. Obviously, if we have the PM, it is normal for the other parties to want to rediscuss certain portfolios. It is important to start discussions and reach an understanding, first of all, on some political objectives for this reformed coalition, on some political objectives and reforms, on some decisions that we will have to make in the next interval. I think that people looking at their gas bill these days, those who watch their dear ones dying in hospitals or who are waiting in the hospital halls to be treated because there are no longer empty beds, I am sure that they are not so much interested in how we divide the portfolios, but how quickly we have a government that can take these measures. (...) The domains are managed by a government that must work as a team, regardless of which party will have what portofolio. The recent time proved that a coalition government functions when it works as a team and when the PM moderates the relationships between ministers, regardless of whether they come from a party or or another, so that they can make decisions in difficult situations," Dacian Ciolos told a show on B1 TV private television broadcaster, when asked if the redistribution of portfolios should be discussed in case the coalition is restored.

Ciolos mentioned that, if the governing coalition is not rebuilt, there will only be two options left for him: to form a minority government or to submit its mandate as prime minister.

"This option is not excluded [minority government - editor's note]. We have not made a decision in the party related to this yet, because our priority is to seek to rebuild this political majority. But after we have these discussions with PNL (National Liberal Party) and UDMR (Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania), depending on the outcome of these discussions, we will decide how to proceed with the mandate we received from the President. Because we have also received a mandate from the President. And we know that the President is close to PNL, in many ways, so I assume that, if the President has made this proposal in his constitutional capacity to appoint the PM, there is probably a message to PNL in it as well. Now we will see to what extent this message is received and taken seriously by the PNL," pointed out the Prime Minister-designate.