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Romanian PM Says Def Min Reshuffle Will Not Affect NATO Summit

The replacement of the minister of defense will not affect preparations for the NATO summit to be hosted by Romania’s capital Bucharest in April, Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said Wednesday.
Romanian PM Says Def Min Reshuffle Will Not Affect NATO Summit
13 feb. 2008, 15:00, English
Tariceanu added the government will send the president the designated candidates for justice minister and defense minister as soon as the motivation of the Constitutional Court ruling in the case of rejected justice minister candidate Norica Nicolai is published in the Official Gazette.
 
President Traian Basescu considers that talk of early elections and the replacement of the defense minister give way to confusion both in the country and abroad and chip away at Romania’s credibility in the context of the upcoming NATO summit to take place in Bucharest.
 
The president’s spokesman Valeriu Turcan said the head of state feels the organization of the NATO summit claims a great deal of responsibility both on the part of all state institutions and political forces. Turcan added the president is willing to work with the government to find a suitable solution for the Ministry of Justice.
 
The government plans to designate Teodor Melescanu, acting minister of defense and interim minister of justice, for justice minister. For the position of defense minister which Melescanu would vacate, the government plans to propose liberal senator Radu Stroe, who is notoriously not to the president’s liking.
 
Basescu told Tariceanu on Tuesday he would not would not accept the dismissal of Melescanu, official sources told MEDIAFAX.
 
The leftist opposition Social Democratic Party, or PSD, on Monday urged the departure of the government to allow the country to overcome its political, economic, social and institutional blocks and allow the organization of early elections.