Simple motion against FinMin Citu to be voted in the plenary meeting on Wednesday

The Chamber of Deputies will vote on Wednesday the simple motion tabled by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) against Finance Minister Florin Citu.

The simple motion, called "The Citu virus has infected the national economy," was debated on Monday in the plenary session of the Chamber.

Mortgaging the country's finances must stop, Romania must be saved from the "Vasile Citu virus," and the Minister of Finance must leave, reads the motion.

"More harmful than the effects of the pandemic, more contagious than the coronavirus and more lethal than the COVID-19 disease, the 'Citu virus' has almost completely destroyed the national economy. After almost two months of state of emergency, after countless stutters, deferrals and adjustments of regulatory acts, Finance Minister Florin Vasile Citu proved incapable to come up with effective support measures for the economy. Opinion polls show that 70 percent of the population believe that Romania could have avoided the coronavirus pandemic's negative effects on the economy, had the Finance Ministry taken efficient measures to support businesses in due time. Put simply, 70 percent of the Romanians believe Minister Citu is a disaster for the economy! What a curse on this country - having the most disastrous Finance Minister in Romania's history steer the economy during this most difficult time," the simple motion reads.

The Social Democrats also mention that in the 6 months of governing and in the more than 50 days since the declaration of the state of emergency, no measures have been taken to "avoid disaster".

Finance Minister stated in the plenary meeting that the motion's signatories are "criminals," arguing that they "used this unfortunate virus to promote their motion and political agenda."

"I am here because the Romanians must know that while the PNL [National Liberal Party] and I are successfully managing this crisis, the signatories of the motion are trying to stop us. I'd like to remind you who the signatories of this motion are. They are those who gassed and beat innocent Romanians on 10 August. The next day they also blamed the same Romanians for coming to take down the Government. It was a coup. In my view, the signatories of this motion are criminals. Because they dared to blackmail this Government by threatening to reject in Parliament the extension of the state of emergency, in my opinion they played poker with Romanians' health, trying to blackmail even the President of Romania. For two months in which we implemented measures to revive the economy, they changed all these measures in Parliament in a criminal and populist way. I say criminals because if the proposals of these irresponsible persons had passed, they would have thrown Romania into economic chaos. But the most despicable thing they done in this motion is that, without any respect for Romanians, for those affected by this crisis, they have used this unfortunate virus, which has generated casualties in Romania and all over the world, to promote their motion and political agenda," Citu said.