Romanian far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) renewed its call for the suspension of president Nicușor Dan on Tuesday, October 6, through the voice of party leader George Simion.
The call came after Dan, who repeatedly refused to appoint a prime minister backed by AUR in recent months, designated independent diplomat Luca Niculescu to form Romania’s next government.
Following the nomination, AUR leaders announced that they would not vote for the Niculescu government.
Simion also said that he would extend an invitation to the Social Democratic Party (PSD), whom the president also sidestepped for a fourth time with his new PM nomination. The far-right leader asked his supporters to write to PSD lawmakers and ask them to support the suspension initiative.
“Nicușor Dan must be suspended! Today I am offering all PSD lawmakers the table for signatures. Write to them too and ask them to sign so that we can unblock the Country!” George Simion wrote on Tuesday in a Facebook post.
The AUR leader did not attend the negotiations hosted by the president prior to his appointment of Niculescu. Instead, Simion said that his party supported the organization of early elections, supposedly to benefit from its higher level of support in current polling.
The same day, a PSD lawmaker, Lucian Morar, announced “a personal initiative” to suspend the president. Morar was accompanied by Gabriel Florea, AUR deputy secretary general, and AUR spokesman Ştefan Avrămescu, when he made the announcement, but insisted that the move was separate from the far-right party.
“This is my personal initiative. I am convinced that some of my colleagues from the Social Democratic Party will sign alongside me. I cannot say how many at this point; it depends on the position of the leadership of the Social Democratic Party,” the Social Democrat added, according to Agerpres.
Two other PSD lawmakers, Dorin Pop and Voicu Vușcan, signed the list initiated by AUR to suspend the president. So far, 119 lawmakers have signed the AUR lists of signatures to suspend the president. A total of 155 lawmakers’ signatures are needed to initiate the president’s suspension proceedings.
Daniel Zamfir, leader of the PSD senators, said that Morar’s move was “in a personal capacity” and that the party leadership had not been informed.
“Now is not the time to discuss such a thing. That would be the last thing Romania needs, to suspend the president as well, given the situation we are in,” Zamfir said.
PSD representatives are reportedly angry with the president’s most recent PM nomination, which they see as an affront to the largest party in the Parliament.
The party president, Sorin Grindeanu, weighed in on the issue on Tuesday, October 6, saying that the suspension is not a priority at this moment.
“After four right-wing prime ministers who failed, it was natural for this mandate to be entrusted to PSD, the party that won the elections. This is probably also the reason for the reaction of some PSD lawmakers, but at this moment the priority for Romania is the economy. This means a stable government that will change the direction so far, relaunch the economy, and protect Romanians’ purchasing power,” the PSD president said, cited by Digi24.
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