President Iohannis: Liviu Dragnea, no longer a discussion partner

While in Bulgaria on Friday, President Iohannis slammed ruling PSD chairman Liviu Dragnea again, saying that “considering his conduct later”, Dragnea is no longer “a discussion partner” for him, and that the relation with the Chamber speaker will be only institutional from now on.

“Let’s not confuse things. We don’t meet because we are friends or because we sympathize each other. We meet when institutional debates must occur. We cannot fail to rule Romania. Statesmen must have the strength to get over political animosities. Discussions between me and the government or with the Parliament’s representatives will be institutional. There will no longer by other talks, informal or harmonization ones. PSD, more precisely Dragnea, doesn’t represent for me a discussion partner anymore, but only on institutional level, considering his conduct lately”, the Romanian president stated in Ruse, where the attended the Trilateral meeting with the President of Bulgaria and the President of Austria.

Iohannis explained that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had called him for a discussion, before the visit paid by Liviu Dragnea and PM Viorica Dancila in Israel, adding that Romania has no interest in ruining the relation with Israel, for some politicians “haven’t understood what is their role”.

“The Government should not have tackled an issue which falls under the President’s authority without first discussing it with the President. The mistake has been done. We must fix it. Romania has no interest in ruining the very good relations with Israel, for instance, because of some politicians who haven’t understood their role. Some of them who considered themselves a little bit more important have run to the television and talked about this memorandum,” Iohannis pointed out.

Two weeks ago, SocDem chairman Dragnea announced that the government had adopted a memorandum to start the procedures to the effective relocation of the Romanian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which stirred President Iohannis’ discontent.

As for the meeting the central bank governor Mugur Isarescu had with PM Dancila in PSD chairman’s office, the head of state said it was “strange”.

“This type of discussion (in Dragnea’s office) is strange. Actually, my desire was to bring those who had some disagreements round the same table. It was not Mrs. Dancila who has attacked BNR, but Dragnea. The fact that they have met through my involvement, if he thinks he has mediated the matter well, it’s Ok, the important thing is that they have met,” Iohannis concluded.

Last week, Iohannis voiced his willingness to mediate a talk between the Government and the National Bank of Romania (BNR) over the interest rise issue and inflation, but PM Dancila refused to come to Cotroceni, which prompted the head of state to ask for her resignation.