President Iohannis announces he prolonged General Ciuca's mandate as Chief of Defence Staff

President Klaus Iohannis on Friday stated after the meeting of the Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT) that he signed a decree by which he prolonged the mandate of General Nicolae Ciuca as Chief of Defence Staff, specifying at the same time that the proposal made by the Minister of Defence, Gabriel Les, was rejected.

    "This proposal made by the Minister of Defence does not observe the rigors of the law. As a result, the CSAT did not approve the Defence Minister's request, a very unpleasant situation, which shows once again, as if needed, that the PSD [Social Democratic Party] is not able to handle the big problems concerning our country. So the situation is that we basically have no proposal valid for the person who will take over the position of Chief of the General Staff of the Army. General Ciuca's mandate ends on December 31. Romania cannot remain without the head of the Army. This situation generated by PSD's incompetence has to be solved. After the CSAT meeting, we have solved it. I made the decision and signed and sent for publication the decree extending the mandate of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army General Ciuca," Iohannis said in a press statement at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.

    He mentioned that Nicolae Ciuca is "a competent soldier who enjoys recognition and has the most beautiful results".

    "It would have been better to find this solution quicker, but I still believe that the Romanian Army needs to know who is leading it and how," the President said.

    On December 19, the Minister of National Defence, Gabriel Les, announced that he would not extend the mandate of Nicolae Ciuca to the Chief of Staff of the Defence.

    "The law provides for a four-year mandate with the possibility of prolonging this mandate. From what I saw in the archives of the Ministry of National Defence, there was the only one situation where the mandate of a former head of the Defence Staff, the Chief of the General Staff, as it was caled back then, and we wanted to maintain the same habit (...) I know how much he has done for the Romanian Army and what he can still do. (...) His mandate ends on 31 December," Les told a television channel. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author; Cristina Zaharia; editor: Adina Panaitescu)

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