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Romania’s Coalition Govt Splits As Social Democrats Quit

Romanian social democrat ministers in the center-left coalition government handed in their resignations Thursday after President Traian Basescu endorsed the democrat liberal prime minster’s decision to sack social democrat Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Dan Nica.
Romania’s Coalition Govt Splits As Social Democrats Quit
01 oct. 2009, 12:56, English

Social democrats held the ministries of Interior, Education, Agriculture, Labor, SMEs, Foreign Affairs, Environment and the Ministry for the Relation with Parliament. Social democrat state secretaries also resigned out of solidarity.

The president’s office issued a press release Thursday morning saying Basescu signed Prime Minister Emil Boc’s proposition to sack Nica and to appoint democrat liberal Development Minister Vasile Blaga as interim interior minister and deputy prime minister.

Social democrats have interpreted Boc’s move to fire Nica as an attempt to gain control of the Interior Ministry, which organizes and oversees presidential elections due on November 22, when coalition parties back rival candidates.

President Basescu, who headed the Democratic Liberal Party but who is now formally independent, has not yet said whether he will run for a second term.