The Dancila cabinet has two new ministers

President Iohannis has signed the appointment decrees for the positions of transport minister and regional development minister

România Internațional, 22.02.2019, 13:20

The Romanian president Klaus Iohannis signed on Thursday the decree
appointing Daniel Suciu as minister for regional development and deputy prime
minister and Razvan Cuc as minister for transports. This time, the president
reacted swiftly, with the appointment decrees being signed and published in the
Official Gazette less than 24 hours since the prime minister submitted her
nominations. The decrees were signed on the very day of the expiry of the
interim term held by the minister of European funds Rovana Plumb for transports
and of finance minister Eugen Teodorovici for regional development.

With the
acceptance of the new proposals, the government formed by Social Democratic
Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats led by Prime Minister Viorica
Dancila is now complete. We recall that the talks on the appointment of the new
ministers go back last November, when the prime minister wanted to make a
government reshuffle. Viorica Dancila said at the time that the reshuffle was
meant to improve the performance of the governmental team, including in the
run-up to Romania’s taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the
European Union on 1st January this year. In November last year, the
president accepted six of the eight proposals made by the Social Democrats for
various reshuffled positions, but rejected the nomination of labour minister
Lia Olguta Vasilescu for the transport ministry and of Ilan Laufer for the
ministry of regional development.

Later, the Social Democrats made new
proposals for the two positions, but they were each time rejected by president
Klaus Iohannis on grounds they did not have the necessary training and
experience. The Social Democratic Party accused the president of blocking the
activity of the government through his repeated refusal to appoint new
ministers, namely Lia Olguta Vasilescu, first for transports and then for
regional development and the Social Democratic Party treasurer Mircea Draghici
for transport. Eventually, the two withdrew their candidacies last week.

With
the signing of the appointment decrees by the president, the Social Democrat
Razvan Cuc returns to the cabinet after running the transport ministry on two
previous occasions, in Sorin Grindeanu’s and Mihai Tudose’s cabinets. He was
elected to Parliament in 2016. For Daniel Suciu, however, this is his first
cabinet job. He was elected to Parliament in 2012 and in February last year
became the leader of the Social Democrats’ parliamentary group in the Chamber
of Deputies.