The Social Democratic Party will trigger early elections if the prime minister change that was agreed to within the ruling coalition doesn’t happen.
The prime minister rotation should have taken place on 25 May but was delayed by the biggest teachers’ strike in the last 18 years.
Currently, the Liberal Party hold the portfolio, but the Social Democrats would have installed their own premier had it not been for the teachers’ walk-out.
Under the coalition agreement reached in November 2021, the prime minister will be rotated between the two parties every 18 months before the next parliamentary elections.
Social-Democrat MEP Victor Negrescu blamed the ”current political context” for the impasse.
“PSD is not refusing to govern, and we are not shirking our responsibilities. We have prepared a government program for the moment when there will be a rotation of prime ministers,” he said in an interview on Prima TV on Saturday.
”We have seen in recent weeks social tensions generated by the teachers’ demands, but there are also other problems related to the delays in the implementation of the national recovery plan (PNRR)”, Negrescu added.
Despite his threats, he said he believed that there would be a new prime minister from his party at the end of June when parliament goes into recess.
However, if the agreement is not respected, early elections are on the table, he added.
“For the PSD, things are quite clear: either we respect the protocol, or the coalition no longer functions, and the only possible solution… is to go back to the Romanians for elections, early elections”, he said, adding that the Social Democrats do not favor this scenario.
