Prime Minister Sends New Letter To President: I Have The Exclusive Right To Select Ministers

The Romanian chief of cabinet argues that she benefits of the exclusive legal right to select individuals proposed to occupy cabinet positions, and in this context requests the appointment of Lia Olguta Vasilescu as regional development minister and Mircea Draghici as transports minister.

“Unfortunately, until now, despite all of our efforts and the openness we showed, we were confronted with your express refusal to appoint the individuals nominated for ministers, initially without a clear reason or based on general and baseless remarks, and later for the reason of not meeting legal conditions for these proposals,” the prime minister wrote in her letter.

“It is very important to mention the fact that the verification of the legality of the two nominations was made by the Government’s secretary-general, before the proposals were filed,” she added.

This comes after President Klaus Iohannis announced on Thursday that he will refuse proposals for the two offices again, arguing that their nomination files were incomplete. This was the third time in the past two months the head of state refused to appoint Dancila’s proposals for the offices.