PM-designate Ciuca determined to play his cards to the end, not giving up mandate

Prime Minister-designate Nicolae Ciuca said on Wednesday that he will play his cards to the end and will not give up his mandate, mentioning that "the door is not closed to absolutely anyone" during the negotiations and that he will duly submit to Parliament the governing program and the Cabinet list by the deadline set on Saturday.

"We are further looking at all the negotiation elements and we will go through this entire negotiation process. There are chances all the time. (...) This has never been an option, so I will not give up my mandate. (.. .) The deadline runs out on Saturday at midnight and until then we will have the governing program and the Cabinet list submitted to Parliament (...). The door is closed to absolutely no one, we continue to negotiate, we continue to discuss and hammer out a final solution. (...) I will play all my chances," Nicolae Ciuca declared at the headquarters of the National Liberal Party (PNL), answering questions on this subject.

"My mandate is currently to negotiate for a PNL-UDMR minority government. (...) Making the mandate more flexible will be discussed and decided, if needed. (...) Here I think I can advance a date, not later than Friday, from my point of view, this would be the last day when we can hold this meeting of the National Political Bureau to decide on more flexibility," added Ciuca.

Asked if leader of the Save Romania Union (USR) Dacian Ciolos has advised him to hand in his mandate in order to allow 2 or 3 weeks of negotiations and then return as Prime Minister, Ciuca said: "You know that there is a lot of advice at this time and we put on the negotiation table the elements that are really serious and can give us headway to set in place a government for the country."

Also, asked if negotiations with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) have been definitively closed, the Prime Minister-designate replied: "No, the door is closed to absolutely no one. We continue to negotiate, we continue to discuss and seek a solution".

Regarding the fact that both PSD and USR have unofficially expressed their intention to enter government, Ciuca said: "I can very well understand these negotiation techniques, therefore allow us use ours as well."

"We do not yet have a decision in this regard. How could that be, when we are talking about a minority government," he added.