Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Wednesday evening that he would sign a decree revoking Agriculture minister Gheorghe Flutur from the Government. Despite speculation that he would not do so, Basescu thus answered a call by PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu to have Flutur dismissed from the Government.

Tariceanu made the call earlier today, one day after his Liberal Party, to which Flutur also belongs, decided to withdraw its political support for the minister because he had joined a group of dissident Liberals asking for a thorough reform of the party.

Basescu said today that he disliked that Tariceanu had not accompanied his request with a proposal to replace Flutur with somebody else. And he said he decided to approve the call so that the Presidency not be considered guilty for the internal problems of the Liberal Party because of its links to the dissident Liberals.