Decision reached for gov't to form around PNL

Interim Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Tuesday, before negotiations with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), that the option of a prime minister from PSD was not discussed, pointing out that the Liberals have decided to form a government around PNL, agerpres reports.

Asked if the Liberals would be willing to accept a PSD prime minister, either Marcel Ciolacu or Sorin Grindeanu, he replied: "We have not discussed such a thing. (...) PNL does not set such preconditions. We are talking about principles. We are the only party that does not impose such preconditions, and I see that the other parties have all sorts of preconditions, which shows me that they do not, in fact, want to govern given that they come up with such preconditions. USR [Save Romania Union] is recommending its party national chairman, PSD its national leader. Somehow, when it comes to PNL, everyone must have an opinion about PNL; the choice will be up to the statutory forums of PNL to make," said Citu at the Parliament House.

He said that if PSD comes up with the proposal of Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu, it is the choice of the Social Democrats, not the Liberals.

"It is not our proposal if it is the proposal of PSD," the PNL national chairman explained.

Citu added that the Liberal mandate is to form a government around PNL.

"It is not an idea. It is a mandate that the negotiating team has today in the negotiations with PSD - a majority around PNL. Any other change must be voted in the statutory forums of PNL. (...) Let's agree on the governing agenda first. It doesn't make sense to move on before we agree on the governing agenda. It is very important to us to have such governing agenda approved, and then we can move on. We will not reach PM talks without a governing agenda first."

According to Citu, the meeting on Monday evening with leaders of PSD and UDMR reached no conclusions, and the rotation of prime ministers was not discussed.

He said that Nicolae Ciuca was voted by the PNL leadership as prime minister for a minority PNL-UDMR government, which did not clear Parliament.

Asked if that decision is still valid, Citu answered: "It could be another proposal. Why stop here? If there are other proposals inside PNL, there may be other proposals; eventually we will see how talks are. At the moment, we only have one decision to form a government around the PNL."

The governing agenda will be discussed by the party's Executive Bureau at a meeting this evening.