Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu said on Thursday that the current political crisis is "a chase for image" that will lead to "Romanians becoming disgusted with politicians", declaring himself "stupefied" by such behaviour.
"It is a race for image, what happens in the Parliament has no political essence. Moreover, everything that happens leads to Romanians becoming disgusted towards the politicians. I am also stupefied and disgusted with such behaviour. However, there must be dialogue in Parliament. This moment of scandal has been sought out. I think we all know how it got here. We have a President of Romania, Mr. Klaus Iohannis, who violated the spirit of the Constitution. He did not give the right of the winning party, namely the PSD, to appoint a prime minister and have the opportunity to try to create a majority in the ten constitutional days and forced a coalition of losers and now we all see the effects. (...) I came up with the proposal to make a government of national union. Because we all had the numbers in the economy and the fact that this pandemic is not going to go away in a year. The president chose something else," Marcel Ciolacu told private broadcaster B1 TV.
He said he does not understand why the PSD was accused of rigging the game, since the National Liberal party (PNL) is holding "all the positions in the Romanian state".
"The PNL does not lack anything. They have all the positions in the Romanian state. The PSD is in the opposition. And this masquerade has begun. Because we have an economic crisis and a health crisis. Both are obvious. They have caught them completely unprepared for the fourth wave, they caught them totally unprepared for the price increases in energy, as well. They have no coherence to deal with the situation. When Orban [PNL chair and Chamber of Deputies Speaker] came with the budget by assuming responsibility, I challenged with CCR [the Constitutional Court of Romania], I said that it is a constitutional conflict. Now we have the head of the PNL, the speaker of the Chamber, the prime minister, Mr. Citu, the PNL, the prime minister is contesting - whose constitutional conflict? Of the censure motion and documents made by Orban, from the Chamber. This is the truth. The sideshow we are witnessing should not happen, especially in Romania, after 30 years of democracy and when we still want to take a step forward," Ciolacu underlined.
The PSD leader ruled out at this moment a collaboration with PNL within a government of national union and reiterated that the return to normalcy can be done only after snap elections.
"It is out of the question at this moment, because the adequate times to do so have been lost, out of a stubbornness of the President of Romania to have his own government. And we see the normalcy promised by the President of Romania regarding the functioning of Parliament and the Government and the living of the Romanians. Following some elections, such a discussion is possible. Because it is a restart and the Romanians are always right. (...) It is obvious that PSD will not support a PNL minority government," Ciolacu stated.
According to him, snap elections could be held sooner than 45 days if the electoral law were changed and he gave the example of other European states that have had early elections in recent years.
Ciolacu specified that PSD is waiting for the CCR decision regarding the constitutionality of the censure motion before voting on it.
Marcel Ciolacu did not rule out the possibility of PSD entering government and mentioned that the proposal of the Social Democrats for the prime minister is still doctor Alexandru Rafila.
He maintained that at this moment PSD has people ready to take over the government, but also a government program almost completed.
"We also have a group of specialists, the vast majority of whom are young, about 90 percent of the government program is almost complete. We did not expect a government after six months, to start such a masquerade. We are going to present them when elections are approaching. If there is a desire for Romania to enter a relatively normal path, the president of Romania must go live and say: 'Dear Romanians, I was wrong'. At that moment, Mr. Rafila is the PSD proposal. We have no other decision of the party," Ciolacu specified.
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