FM Melescanu sends official request to Presidency to recall ambassador Maior from the U.S. What was Iohannis’ response?

Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu has announced on Wednesday that he had sent a request to President Iohannis to recall George Maior from the position of Romanian ambassador to Washington and to appoint a new ambassador.

Ruling coalition PSD-ALDE leaders, Liviu Dragnea and Calin Popescu Tariceanu had repeatedly asked for Maior’s recall, with Tariceanu recently accusing Maior of “bringing huge disservices” to Romania and of “blocking the Romanian officials’ communication with the American Administration.”

 “The Senate’s Foreign Policy Committee has asked the Foreign Ministry to conduct a an analysis regarding George Maior. We conducted this analysis and we sent the Presidency the proposal to recall ambassador Maior from the U.S. and to appoint a new ambassador. Our analysis also based on the report of the SRI Committee which stated that Mr. Maior had used the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) for personal purposes while he was leading the service“, FM Melescanu told Antena 3.

George Maior was heard by the Committee on SRI control last year, on the topic of the secret protocols concluded by SRI with other judiciary bodies, but also on Maior’s relation with the former national integrity head (ANI) Horia Georgescu and how Maior used to influence the integrity files.

The subsequent report by the SRI committee pointed out that, considering the collaboration between ANI and SRI, George Maior’s deeds can represent “political police actions meant to seriously affect the democratic processes, to obtain illegitimate political influence”. More precisely, the MPs accuse Maior of having used SRI and the relation with ANI “to create the opportunity to become prime minister if Victor Ponta became President” following the presidential elections of 2014.

President Iohannis’ stance

In retort, President Klaus Iohannis has stated today that he has seen FM Melescanu’s letter that request George Maior’s recall from Washington, saying he will take a decision immediately after the EU summit in Sibiu ends.

The head of state mentioned that he would consider all information at hand about George Maior. “All important data matter to me and I will take all data at my disposal into account and I can assure there are many of them. I can also tell you that I felt comfortable in 2014, the way I did not feel in 2013, when the National Integrity Agency (ANI) decided to start a procedure against me, which was nonsense at that time. We shall discuss about these issues“, Iohannis said.