Romania. Three ministers resign after the break-up of the coalition

The portfolios of the resigners - Energy, Environment and Relations with Parliament - will be handed over by interim to three personalities of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), now alone in power.

Three ministers of the Romanian government resigned on Tuesday (August 27th), the day after the decision of their party, Alde, to leave the ruling left coalition, a step closer to a political crisis in one of the poorest countries in the world. the European Union.

The portfolios of the resigners - Energy, Environment and Relations with Parliament - will be entrusted to three figures of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), now alone in power, said the spokesman of the government.

Towards early elections?

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila will then have forty-five days to fill the posts of titular ministers and gain parliamentary confidence in her new team.

But the bet is far from won for the PSD, which lost its majority in parliament with the departure of Alde. It now has only 205 seats out of a total of 465 parliamentarians.

In case of failure to gather enough votes, the Social Democrats could be confronted with early elections before the end of the term of office at the end of 2020.

The Prime Minister castigated the "political games" of Alde

The divorce comes less than three months from the November presidential election, a vote of outgoing center right president Klaus Iohannis is preferred.

Viorica Dancila reiterated this Tuesday, August 27 that she did not intend to throw in the towel. "Romania needs responsibility," she said, castigating the "political games" of Alde.

The boss of this group, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, had questioned Monday "a series of decisions" made by the PSD without consulting him and announced that his elected representatives would vote for a possible motion of censure against the government.

At the root of the breakup would be the decision of the Social Democrats to nominate Ms. Dancila as a presidential candidate, while Mr. Tariceanu hoped to be the left-back candidate.

Alde, which received only 4% of the vote in the European elections in May, also hopes to restore its image by distancing itself from an increasingly unpopular PSD.

The social democrats, who have largely dominated political life since the fall of the communist regime in late 1989, risk for the first time in thirty years not to reach the second round of the presidential election, analysts say.

Orphaned by his former leader, the sulphurous Liviu Dragnea, incarcerated in late May in a case of fictitious jobs, this party also pays the price of a controversial overhaul of the judicial system, which has angered Romanians and the sharp criticism of Brussels .

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