PSD, Pro Romania propose university rector as PM

PSD and Pro Romania leaders Marcel Ciolacu and Victor Ponta have announced after the censure motion against Orban Cabinet had been voted that they will go to consultations at Cotroceni Palace with a joint proposal for the prime minister position, namely with Remus Pricopie, the rector of the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA) and former minister of Education.

“We are going with a single nomination for the PM, namely Remus Pricopie, the SNSPA rector, former Education minister, a pro-European and pro-American”, said interim PSD leader, Marcel Ciolacu.

The decision was taken after a meeting Ciolacu had with Victor Ponta, Călin Popescu Tăriceanu and Teodor Meleșcanu.

Remus Pricopie is at his second mandate as SNSPA rector, and he was dean from 2005 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2012. Aged 50, Pricopie was minister of Education in one of Victor Ponta’s cabinets, during 2012- 2014.

Sources in Parliament told HotNews.ro that PSD is trying to create a majority next to Pro Romania, ALDE and the National Force. The same sources say that PSD was the one who proposed Remus Pricopie as PM, while Ponta and Tariceanu would have proposed Raed Arafat, the SMURD founder and Head of the Emergency Situations Department.

The three parties have 240 MPs together, more than half plus one in the total number of seats in Parliament.