USR PLUS Co-Chair Dacian Ciolos: Premier Citu has huge integrity issues

Co-Chairman of the Save Romania Union - Freedom, Unity, and Solidarity Party (USR PLUS) Dacian Ciolos considers that a Prime Minister who sacks the Justice Minister for not putting the seal of approval on a legislative project the Premier is pushing for and appoints an interim who approves the same project "under which his own party gets 10 billion euros" has "huge integrity issues". Ciolos' comment comes in the context where acting Justice Minister Lucian Bode announced that he will approve the PNDL 3 bill. "I presume that [the Premier] will also take responsibility for the destination of the money and the consequences of squandering these resources, the legal consequences included. Even so, we are left with the original problem. We do not vouch for such a theft, regardless of Citu's explanations, and the PNL will have to pay the political price for the actions of the Prime Minister that currently has its backing," Ciolos wrote on Facebook this evening. According to him, USR PLUS stands its ground with the request that Prime Minister Florin Citu should step down. "We are moving forward and further request the resignation of this Prime Minister who is willing to sacrifice Romania's political stability for money doled out to his own party. We, USR PLUS, received the citizens' vote also because during our campaign we said that we want a Romania free of theft. This is why we will do our utmost to defend this principle," Dacian Ciolos wrote. Acting Justice Minister Lucian Bode announced on Thursday that he will approve the bill on the "Anghel Saligny" Program. "In what regards the 'Anghel Saligny' National Investment Plan, the government debated this draft regulatory act in a first reading nearly three weeks ago and, as it results from the first discussions I had with Justice Ministry experts, and knowing roughly the subject as a government member, we will consult tonight with the Development Ministry's team, with the initiators of the bill, and I will definitely approve this draft," Lucian Bode said at the Justice Ministry's premises after taking over the portfolio of acting JusMin. AGERPRES (RO - author: Georgiana Tanasescu, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)