USR's Barna: Florin Citu seemed a reforming PM at time of this coalition's establishment

The co-chair of the Save Romania Union - Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity (USR PLUS) Dan Barna stated on Monday that, at the moment of establishing the governing coalition, Florin Citu seemed to be "a reforming Prime Minister", closer to Romania's need for change, agerpres reports.

"At the time I did not know Florin Citu previously, only from Parliament, we saw each other two - three times, we said hello a few times, but the stake of this situation was the fact that Florin Citu seemed a reforming Prime Minister, closer to this need of Romania for change, for reform, perception that we all had or many of us had at the moment of the coalition's establishment. Ultimately, it's a matter of human competence to be able to understand how to lead a coalition. If you do not respect your coalition partners, you can't function, that's where the background issue comes from, the idea that this cabinet is in someone's name, whereas it can't be in someone's name as long as it depends on the votes of three partners and not just one," Barna told Europa FM private radio broadcaster.

He added that he had a "civilized relation" with Florin Citu and the relations between them were not the reason for which there were difficulties in the running of the coalition.

"So it's not a personal matter and it was never a personal matter, but the background issue relates to the capacity to respect our agreement. (...) We fell for it then [e.n. - after the dismissal of Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu] and said - for the sake of responsibility, for Romania, we clarify that the eventual dismissal of a minister is done by discussing in the coalition, evaluating activity, tabling arguments and moving forth in the respective context. The fact that in the Stelian Ion situation we woke up in the morning with the PNDL [National Local Development Program] program, about which we had talked two days prior that we would discuss a week later with amendments to make it credible, and Wednesday it was forced through against the coalition agreement and after that, in the evening, instead of clarifying the said issue, I was announced he will dismiss Stelian Ion, I understood that all we signed meant nothing to the Prime Minister, and he regarded as a joke the agreement in the coalition. The summary of the situation is the following: we have a coalition in which one of the partners no longer supports the PM. The moment the coalition proposes a new Prime Minister we can move forward," Barna concluded.