Barna: We will demand the resignation of the prime minister, motion of censure is ready

Co-chairman of the Save Romania Union - Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (USR PLUS) alliance, minor at rule, Dan Barna said on Thursday that at the coalition meeting on Friday evening the party he represents intends to try the "elegant way" and demand the honorary resignation of Prime Minister Florin Citu, mentioning that, if that does not happen, he will resort to a ready to use motion of censure that will be signed by Alliance for Romania's Unity (AUR) lawmakers as well. However, the deputy prime minister said that he did not negotiate anything with AUR, adding that when it comes to a motion of censure depriving a government of support, it is "an opportunistic vote on an important matter." "I did not negotiate anything with AUR. Mr. Mosteanu said that we have a motion of censure ready (...), we opened it for a vote to all lawmakers. Discussions took place; I did not have any discussions, AUR said they would support this USR PLUS motion. If that happens, it will be very good. It is an important stake for this coalition to move forward with another prime minister," Barna told Digi 24 private broadcaster. According to him, the rest of the signatures required for the motion of censure by USR PLUS to succeed will come from the opposition lawmakers. "We have 80 signatures of USR PLUS lawmakers; we will get the rest from the opposition lawmakers, some from AUR, we hope it will be from other colleagues, we will see. (...) We have the number of signatures, at least from discussions, from statements by AUR they are enough and we have the motion ready, but tomorrow we will have a discussion inside the ruling coalition - tomorrow evening, in the afternoon - a discussion of the coalition in which we will try the elegant way, the natural way in which we will tell our coalition colleagues that the elegant resignation, the honorary resignation of the prime minister Florin Citu will be able to solve much more easily this tense situation of tension that unfortunately was reached," added Barna. He insisted that there is no collaboration with AUR. "We are neither in conflict nor in antithesis with AUR. Two-round mayoral elections, for instance, if AUR also votes for it, does it mean that we do not vote for it because AUR does the same? (...) In Parliament, parties with fundamentally different agendas may agree on some topics. When we talk about a motion of censure in which a government no longer has support, it is an opportunistic vote on an important issue," Barna explained. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)