Senate President Tariceanu: I have never thought, I don't intend, nor am I planning to break the coalition

Senate President and leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, on Monday stated that he never intended and he doesn't plan to break the current governing coalition. 

"I've heard rumors flying all over the place, incredibly fast, presenting this news as certain, and it was not just from the journalists that I heard this rumor, which circulated in the past couple of days, that the coalition is breaking and that I, Tariceanu, will become the Prime Minister of a government to be based on a majority including the PNL [the National Liberal Party] and the USR [the Save Romania Union] and s.o.s.f. I am telling you this from the very start, so that everything gets clear: (...) I have never thought, I don't intend, nor am I planning to break the coalition. And I believe this is also valid for my colleague, the PSD (the Social Democratic Party) leader, Mr. Dragnea," Calin Popescu-Tariceanu told Antena 3 private television station, when asked about the possibility of the PSD-ALDE coalition breaking. 

The ALDE leader explained that, in his opinion, this scenario started from the moment when the head of the state invited the parliamentary parties to the Cotroceni Presidential Palace for discussions, when he made a series of statements that were misunderstood, when referring to the project that he started in view of making a political agreement in the justice field launched to all the parliamentary parties. 

Tariceanu reiterated that his affirmations regarding the fact that Romania is not prepared to take over the Presidency of the Council of the EU took into accoun the political climate in our country and not the Government's in this process. "I was glad that the Prime Minister said it too, in a statement she made: I understand what Mr. Tariceanu wanted to say, it's not about the preparations that the Government needs to carry out, but the political climate of Romania," he said. 

The ALDE head pointed out that the current governing coalition will continue as it is, as the governing programme must be accomplished. 

"Why do I think that the coalition will continue? Because us, and I mean the PSD and the ALDE (...) committed in front of the Romanians to accomplish a certain economic and political programme. The political programme was clear - to make the justice reform and return to the rule of law or, in other words, stop all the abuses, excesses, all those things that contradict the rule of law and, on the other hand, to have an economic programme that means economic growth, welfare for the Romanians, namely salaries, higher pensions, a better performance and a better climate in the entrepreneurial field and so on, infrastructure, education, transportation. So, we have all these things that we committed to bring to a good end and we have this responsibility, despite some situations that might arise, differences of analyses, but this is nothing serious," said Tariceanu.