President Iohannis meets PM Citu on the ruling coalition crisis. What does USR PLUS want from the head of state?

By Romania Journal Last updated Sep 6, 2021

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President Klaus Iohannis is meeting Prime Minister Florin Citu today on the topic of the government crisis, the Presidential Administration informed.

According to the quoted source, the meeting took place at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace today and lasted around one hour. Gov’t sources told mainstream media that President Iohannis would have told PM Citu that he still endorses him to stay in office.

On the other side, USR-PLUS sees only one solution to overcome the crisis, hoping that President Iohannis will ask PM Florin Citu to step down at the meeting at Cotroceni Presidential Palace.

“I see there is a meeting today between President Klaus Iohannis and Florin Citu. I hope the President will ask Citu to take a step back (…) Maybe Florin Citu will take a step back until it is too late”, said Ionuț Moșteanu, the leader of USR-PLUS deputies.

Moreover, Mosteanu accused President Iohannis of sending “pro-PNL” messages. Mosteanu said that Klaus Iohannis “could have played his mediating part better”, accusing him of “having sent PNL activist like messages” amid this crisis.

President Klaus Iohannis had slammed USR-PLUS actions to file a censure motion helped by AUR. Iohannis warned that such an alliance would offend Romanians and that, by filing a censure motion against its own Cabinet, USR-PLUS is discrediting itself irrevocably.

The ruling coalition is about to fall apart after PM Florin Citu had sacked Justice minister Stelian Ion (USR PLUS) last week.

In retort, USR PLUS Co-Chairman Dan Barna announced that negotiations within the ruling coalition had failed, and that his party had submitted a censure motion against PM Florin Citu, along with AUR.

The joint Standing Bureaus of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies have been summoned for Monday at 12:00hrs to establish the time frame to debate the censure motion.

USR PLUS leaders announced their ministers will file their resignation early this week.

Initially, the joint Standing Bureaus of the Parliament had been convened for Friday night, but the meeting could not take place due to the lack of quorum, so it was postponed for Saturday. The quorum was not met on Saturday either, so the sitting was scheduled for Monday, September 6.

The opposition PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu stated on Sunday night that “there are suspicions” related to the signatures on the censure motion submitted by USR-PLUS and AUR and that’s why a physicial sitting would be needed, not an online one, of the members of the Standing Bureaus who must approve the motion and set a schedule for debating and voting the motion.

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