Ex-minister Rovana Plumb joins mayor Firea in slamming PM Tudose. Bucharest mayor launches new accusations against PM

More and more voices in the ruling Social Democrat Party are lashing out against PM Mihai Tudose. After Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea, the former minister of European Funds, Rovana Plumb has also slammed the prime minister on Monday for his latest statements coming against the party’s course. Plumb said that the premier’s statements “sometimes don’t coincide with his party fellows’ stances”. She said that the party is the one to decide if the incumbent premier will have the same fate as his predecessor, Sorin Grindeanu.

“To be honest, I don’t consider as normal that Mr. premier should give statements that are sometimes not coinciding with stances that our colleagues have,” Rovana Plumb said.

Questioned if Mihai Tudose risks the same fate as former PM Sorin Grindeanu due to its public stances, Plumb answered: “This is something to be decided by the party. I cannot tell now what will happen.”

Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea also stated late on Monday that PM Mihai Tudose is offending part of his party fellows, while “being nice” with a minority group in an attempt to consolidate his position.

Firea, who is also leader of the Bucharest PSD organization, explained that she had never said that Tudose would intend to take over the leadership of the party, but just he is behaving as if he would like to. Firea added that a meeting of the PSD leadership might be convened in the upcoming days to settle the party rows.

The premier’s row with some PSD members started after he had said last Thursday that the Bucharest mayor’s decision to organize a Christmas Fair in Victoriei Square was not the most inspired one.

Transcripts revealing a discussion in a party meeting on November 30 and released by dcnews.ro, disclosed that Gabriela Firea accused PM Tudose that he is sabotaging the Bucharest city hall and that he has a hidden agenda in order to take over the PSD helm.

“You have spent half of year consuming energy to block me and to stop the joint projects between the Government and the Bucharest City Hall. Mr. Iohannis is on electoral campaign for the presidential elections, you are on campaign to take over PSD. We cannot be united with those who have orders from the unit, we are civilians,” Firea would have told Tudose.

No later than Sunday, Gabriela Firea fired back with new criticism against PM Tudose, openly accusing him of giving “discordant” retorts to his party fellows, referring to the premier’s “arrogant stance” against her and to the criticism against his former two ministers, Sevil Shhaideh and Rovana Plumb, investigated in the Belina case.

Firea said that no PSD member has the right to offend his colleagues and retort to them in public, even if he is mayor or prime minister.

Gabriela Firea was also the one who started the row with former SocDem PM Sorin Grindeanu, which led to the gov’t crisis in June and to the censure motion filed by PSD against its own prime minister. The no-confidence vote passed and Grindeanu was sacked.