President Klaus Iohannis rejected a request by PM Viorica Dancila to accept a government reshuffle for the third time on Thursday, sending the prime minister to Parliament to receive support and validation for her team. He said today that the government reshuffle pushed for by Dancila "was not welcome, improper and one that I clearly reject".
The Social Democratic (PSD) head of government has been pushing for government changes for two months and especially more so for the past two weeks, in the wake of a split of the governing coalition caused by the departure of coalition member party ALDE in late August.
- Iohannis and Dancila are running for election in a presidential poll due later this year.
Iohannis called the latest of Dancila's request "unconstitutional". He said the PM had to show up before the Parliament to obtain validation because "otherwhise things will not get fixed".
Earlier on Thursday, Dancila called on the President to leave "political games aside" and stop blocking the activity of the government.
- She is requesting for approval of six new ministers - three nominated after a series of changes she had called in early August, and another three nominated following the departure of ALDE from the governing coalition - more on this in the HotNews.ro report here.
