On Tuesday, the Parliament’s specialist committees Okayed seven of the designated ministers as proposed by the PM-designate Ludovic Orban: Victor Sebastian Costache for minister of health; Marcel Ion Vela for minister of internal affairs; Ionel Nicolae Ciuca for defence minister; Nechita-Adrian Oros for minister of agriculture and rural development, Costel Alexe for minister of the environment, waters and forestry; Bogdan Gheorghiu for minister of culture, and Ioan Marcel Bolos for minister of European funds.
Florin Citu was the only minister heard on Tuesday who failed to secure the endorsement of the specialist committees, and two more proposed minister were vetoed in the Wednesday’s hearings.
Hearings continued today for Bogdan Aurescu, proposed as Foreign Minister, Catalin Predoiu, picked for justice minister, Virgil-Daniel Popescu, minister-designate of economy, energy and the business environment, Lucian Nicolae Bode, the designated minister of transport, infrastructure and communications, Cristina Monica Anisie, the minister-designate of education and research, Marian Ionut Stroe, the minister-designate of youth and sports, and Victoria Violeta Alexandru, the minister-designate of labour and social security.
Ion Ștefan, proposed as minister of Development has been rejected, being the second who failed to secure the specialist committee’s endorsement after Florin Citu, nominated for the Finance Ministry. Stefan has been rejected following quite a close vote, by 19 votes to 17.
Liberal Ion Stefan has been under scrutiny over not paying some debts to the Focsani City Hall for his 900-sqm villa. He said he was wrong and that he will pay his debts.
The third proposed minister who was rejected was Violeta Alexandru, Labour minister-designate. 22 deputies and senators voted in favour of Violets Alexandru, while other 29 voted against her. One MP abstained from voting.
Violeta Alexandru, a former civil society activist and ex-minister in the technocrat Ciolos Cabinet in 2016, left Dacian Ciolos’ party in 2018 and joined PNL, becoming adviser of Liberal chairman Ludovic Orban. Alexandru was elected leader of the National Liberal Party Bucharest organisation this summer.
The plenary session of the Parliament to cast a vote on the Ludovic Orban Cabinet is scheduled on Monday, November 4, at 14:00hrs.
New controversial statement by the outgoing FinMin Teodorovici
Known for his juicy statements, outgoing Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici has made another one during the hearing of Liberal Florin Citu, proposed as Finance Minister.
Eugen Teodorovici has constantly interrupted Citu’s hearing, accusing the Liberal that he is reading from the paper.
At some point, Teodorovici said: “I like whores, but not in politics”.
Teodorovici and Citu were known as public enemies, permanently attacking each other.
In March this year, PNL Senator Florin Citu accused Eugen Teodorovici of playing Russia’s games against the interests of Romania and of its strategic allies. The Liberal argues that Teodorovici has conceived a plan to allow Moscow to continue its masked economic expansion.
Many times, Eugen Teodorovici offended Citu, calling him “imbecile”, “stupid” and ugly”.
Teodorovici has also become famous for offending journalists. Recently, Teodorovici offended a female journalist from B1 TV, commenting she has false teeth and ironically asking her “if she is free tonight”.