PNL's Turcan says PNL able to govern Romania at least for four more years

National Liberal Party (PNL) First Deputy Chair, Deputy Prime Minister Raluca Turcan, said Sunday that through the measures taken by the Liberal government, the party shows that it is capable of governing Romania for at least four more years. "We have reached a political maturity that no other party in Romania has, not only have we defeated a dangerous opponent, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), but we have shown that we have the strength to come before the Romanians with solid opinions that we have thought through. (...) We have won the European, presidential and government elections in Romania. We are at a moment of poise in which I propose that each one of you should accept these decisions that the PNL has taken through its government and that show in fact that we are able to govern Romania at least four years from now on," Turcan told a PNL National Council convention at Parliament House. She accused the PSD of "ruling the country badly and taking no responsibility," leaving behind a "robbed treasury." Turcan presented the PNL achievements since taking over the government. She showed that PNL closed the 2019 national budget, covering outstanding payments of over 10 billion lei, eliminated the fuel surcharge and the taxation of part-time employment contracts. "We also found financial resources for raising the minimum wage, for indexing the state allowances for children, for observing the schedule for raising public sector pay and for budgeting the resources for raising state pensions. We will do everything in our power to find the financial resources and to increase the state allowances for children, "said Turcan, adding that 50 billion lei are allocated this year for public investments and construction sites will reopen. Chair of the League of the PNL Local Elected Officials Gheorghe Flutur pointed out that the most important step to be taken by PNL is that of early elections, which should be more insistently touted. "We have not created the crisis, but the PSD did, which lost an ally last year. In a civilised country, when you no longer have a majority, you go for early elections, it is not a whim. We cannot go on with 20% support ad infinitum, and we have to ask the Romanians: we go for early elections to make the big reforms for Romania, we want a decentralised Romania, connection among the historical provinces, that we talk about reindustrialisation. It should be explained that at 20% support in the Romanian Parliament it is very hard to perform," said Flutur. He urged the PNL leadership to speed up the procedure for appointing PNL candidates for the local elections. "Let us have things cleared up on March 1," Flutur added. PNL Deputy Chair Virgil Guran spoke about the attacks on ministers, who he says are critiqued for minor things. "We see all kinds of attacks on TV. Do you know what I enjoy? That our ministers are attacked because they don't know the exact area of their houses; that a minister wants to go up the stairs and doesn't take the elevator; that a minister wants free time to operate (...) it is very good that they attack us for such things because there is a big difference. The ministers of PSD were attacked for thefts, for cheats and for combinations. Ours are being critiqued for some minor things. I have not heard anyone saying that or ministers are stealing; our communication should focus on showing people what our ministers are doing," Guran said. A protocol for the integration of the Social-Liberal Movement with PNL was approved at the National Council convention. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, publisher: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)