PM sends 6 new names for the vacant minister seats following negotiations with ALDE dissidents to avoid the Parliament’s vote on Gov’t restructuring. Controversial nomination for the Interior Ministry

PM Viorica Dăncilă has announced on Wednesday she will send six new minister proposals to President Klaus Iohannis, with three of them coming from ALDE for the ministries that had been assigned to ALDE under the protocol of the defunct PSD-ALDE ruling coalition.

The nominations coming from ALDE are: Graţiela Gavrilescu for the Environment Ministry, Ion Cupă -Energy Ministry and Ştefan Băişanu, as minister for the Parliament Liaison.

Gratiela Gavrilescu is precisely the former Environment Minister who resigned just several weeks ago after ALDE had quit the Government.

Teodor Melescanu is another ALDE member who changed the camps and remained next to PSD, as he accepted and has been voted as Senate Speaker, replacing his party chief, Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

Both Melescanu and Gavrilescu are to be expelled from ALDE amid Tariceanu’s discontent. ALDE leader has announced that the party’s Standing Delegation will convene next Monday to formalize the decisions to expel the ALDE members who accepted to be members of Dancila Cabinet. Moreover, Tăriceanu has accused the prime minister that she is trying by any means to destabilize and restructure ALDE to avoid coming in Parliament for a vote of confidence. Tariceanu warned Dancila she will not get away with the parliament’s vote.

In retort, Teodor Melescanu said on Thursday that he doesn’t believe in exclusions and in “dictator-like habits from Banana Land”. He also said that ALDE must choose if it continues collaboration with PSD or it disappears from the political life. Melescanu added that a Congress within ALDE is imperative, but after the presidential election, otherwise it might have a negative impact.

The Social Democrat Party has allegedly negotiated with three ALDE ministers to convince them to join the Government, in order to take over the vacant positions left behind by their resigning colleagues, sources within the ruling party told local media.

PM Viorica Dăncilă would thus want to avoid the vote in the Parliament on the Government restructuring, although she has been the one who endorsed such an option. However, it seems that a majority in parliament to Okay the restructuring is not possible anymore, so the premier fears her Cabinet will suffer a PR coup before the censure motion heralded by the Opposition.

Therefore, to avoid the vote, Dăncilă is trying to convince the dissidents in ALDE to accept the vacant portfolios in her Cabinet, thus claiming that the political colour of the Government is the same.

Two versions were ahead the prime minister regarding the vacant minister positions: reshuffle or restructuring.

A reshuffle doesn’t involve asking for a vote of confidence in Parliament, but just to send some nominations to President Iohannis. However, it seems the premier will not go for this version, as the head of state might reject the minister proposals, as he has done so far.

Controversial nomination for the Interior Ministry

The nominations for the other vacant ministries came from PSD:

Camelia Gavrilă – Education portfolio

Daniel Dumitru Chirilă – Interior Ministry

Dan Matei (Dăncilă’s adviser) -deputy PM on economic affairs

Daniel Chirilă’s nomination has stirred a wave of criticism in the public opinion, as mass media reported that he was former officer of the famous Interior Ministry’s intelligence unit (DGIPI), and close friend of the former PSD Head, Liviu Dragnea.

It seems that Liviu Dragnea tried to appoint Chirilă to run DGIPI in 2012, when the former PSD chairman was Interior Ministry for several days. Dragnea allegedly resigned precisely because he could not manage to impose his person at the helm of the ministry’s intelligence service.

Sources within PSD claim that Dragnea also tried to name Chirilă chief of DGIPI also this year, before his conviction, but apparently the former minister Carmen Dan was reluctant due to the criticism against Chirilă.

Daniel Dumitru Chirilă, aged 41, is a retired colonel who retired when he was 39 years old. His monthly pension mounts to RON 7,600 according to his wealth statement.

After retiring from the police, Chirilă became general manager at Quality Business Solution, a company controlled by businessman Dumitru Octavian Nicolau, and which used to “subscribe” to many contracts with public institutions, especially with the Interior Ministry and the Special Telecommunications Service (STS), during the mandate of Marcel Opris as STS director.

As for the proposal at Education, Camelia Gavrila is a Romanian teacher, former high school manager in Iasi and former head of the Iasi School Inspectorate. She is currently PSD deputy.