President's attitude conflicts with constitutional duties for not convening parties to consultations (USR)

Former Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice Alexandru Dimitriu (Save Romania Union, USR) claims that President Klaus Iohannis should have summoned the parties to consultations after Nicolae Ciuca submitted his mandate, agerpres reports.

In a Facebook post, he states that the president's attitude "conflicts" with his constitutional duties and amounts to violating the role of mediator.

"The investiture of a government with full powers starts from the president's signature. The Constitution does not make the appointment of a prime minister by the president conditional on the existence of a parliamentary majority, as long as a party has not obtained more than 50% of the seats in parliament. Hence, the president's attitude of two weeks ago conflicts with his constitutional duties, because for 12 days, since Mr. Ciuca submitted his resignation as Prime Minister-designate, the president has not convened parties for consultations so as to be able to nominate a candidate for prime minister. To say that you will not start consultations until the parliamentary parties find a way to build a majority is tantamount to violating the role of mediator that the president has under Article 80 of the Constitution, or a violation of Article 103 of the Constitution, which gives the president the power and competence to nominate a candidate for prime minister," explains Dimitriu.

In his opinion, the country's interest would not be "at the top of the agenda" of the president, the important thing for the latter being to find "a solution" so that Florin Citu (National Liberal Party, PNL) remains prime minister.

"Romania is stuck in political games that are worthy of the film 'Idiocracy', translated as The supremacy of the goons. The intrigues of the political dystopia 'House of Cards' are too fine for them. When these great statesmen realize that USR really does not want Citu as prime minister and will not be part of a Government led by him, PNL, insulting and practically defying the votes obtained in the general elections of December (2020), goes with PSD in the hope that they will accept Citu. We will see... And this is how we are stuck, 40 days have passed since the fall of the Citu Government through a motion of censure. PNRR [National Recovery and Resilience Plan] cannot be implemented, and without a budgetary rectification, which can only be given by a Government with full powers, the state goes into default," mentions the USR representative.