The Culture minister Vlad Alexandrescu announced on Facebook on Wednesday that he had filed his resignation. Few hours earlier, sources unveiled that PM Dacian Ciolos had asked minister Alexandrescu to resign over the Opera scandal.
In a letter to the prime minister posted on Facebook, the resigning minister explains that he has faced “on opaque resistance to the structural change that he has tried to initiate and enforce across the Romanian cultural institutions.”
He said that his goal while acting as Culture minister in the Ciolos Government was “to remove the public cultural institutions’ management from a draggy, ankylosed state.”
“In front of the unfailing hostility of the apparatus opposing a re-thinking of the public cultural institutions’ performance, of the state-private relationship, I present my resignation,” Vlad Alexandrescu tells PM Ciolos.
Vlad Alexandrescu is the third minister leaving the Ciolos Cabinet, after the Labour and European Funds ministers.
President Iohannis takes stand
However, the premier and even President Iohannis seem to have had a different perspective of the Opera scandal and of the ministry’s involvement.
Iohannis said on Wednesday afternoon after the minister’s resignation that he was displeased with the manner that the Culture ministry has managed the scandal of the National Opera, arguing it is “a counter example of involvement”, while adding that this was one of the three major rebukes he has towards the Executive.
According to the Romanian head of state, the other two complaints are related to the European funds situation and to the public wage law.
Protest to support the resigning minister
On the other hand, a protest tu support the resigning minister took place in front of the Government building on Wednesday night, suggestively entitled “Je suis Vlad”, with PM Ciolos himself being present amid protesters who asked him not to let Alexandrescu step aside.
The premier expressed hope that the Culture minister’s resignation would convince all opera artists that they could find in the ministry ” that pole of stability andcoherent administrative decision that they need,” while launching an appeal for dialogue.
The Culture minister Vlad Alexandrescu has changed four interim directors at the Opera in the past weeks: George Călin, Tiberiu Soare, Vlad Conta and again George Călin, who had been eventually sacked after only a day following the employees’ protests against him. Several performances have been cancelled last week amid these tensions.
Disputes kicked off due to the disagreements between a part of the ballet corps which endorsed the Danish choreographer Johan Kobborg and the Romanian employees of the ONB, artists and dancers supporting conductors Tiberiu Soare and Vlad Conta.
At the same time,the Government spokesperson Dan Suciu informed that the premier would sent his Control Body at the Romanian Opera to probe into the management problems and how the public funds had been used. The investigation will kick off next week.