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Prime Minister designate, Ludovic Orban, congratulated on Thursday, at the start of the Government sitting, all the Cabinet members for the way they faced the debates in the specialty committees and mentioned that a lot of Social Democrat (PSD) MPs "lowered the level of the hearings", and stated his belief that anyone who votes like the PSD "has a backdoor arrangement with the PSD".
"I wanted to tell you that I am very pleased, that I congratulate you, that you stood tall, that despite the extremely difficult hearing conditions you faced them well. Those of you who did not receive an endorsement, you have no reason to be displeased. In the committees in which you did not receive endorsements, the PSD and their new allies - I mean I believe anyone who votes as the PSD in the committees has some backdoor arrangement with the PSD - so, the PSD and their new allies, but especially the PSD, have showed their lack of discernment and the incapacity to support competent ministers, because the majority that voted against us are the majority that invested (...) an entire list of functional illiterates, who normally had no reason being in any execution position in the ministries towards which they were propelled," he said.
Furthermore, he urged the designated ministers to not be "upset" for the lack of endorsements adopted by "some MPs that voted on order from the party and without any personal discernment." On the other hand, Orban said that the minister proposed for Agriculture, Adrian Oros, should ask himself why he received the endorsement.
"Surely those who received the endorsements should ask themselves questions on how they received them. In a later evaluation we will have to find an answer to that question, because, I repeat, the performance of all was of very high quality. And, normally, if we were in a normal Parliament, everyone would have gotten endorsements. If I were you, Minister Oros, I wouldn't have posted that I received an endorsement, I would ask myself why I received that endorsement," Orban stated.
The Prime Minister also said that the hearings of ministers in the Parliamentary select committees have "never" been conducted in such a manner.
"Three hour hearings, three hours and a half! The PSD, each time they had a parliamentary majority, wouldn't even allow their ministerial candidates to answer the questions they had no answer to. Furthermore, they would collect the questions from all the MPs in the committee - not as it happened with you, question and answer, question and answer - and they would only answer 10 pct of the questions that were asked by MPs. So much aggressiveness that was pushed many times to boorishness and to excesses in language I have rarely seen and it disqualifies, practically, many of the PSD MPs, which stooped the level of the hearings so low," said Orban.
The hearings in Parliament of the ministers proposed to be part of the Orban II Government concluded, on Wednesday, after three days of debates in the joint select committees.
Only four ministers - Nicolae Ciuca, Bogdan Aurescu, Virgil Popescu and Adrian Oros - of the 16 heard in the committees received endorsements from MPs.
