Financiarul

Chairman of the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL) Crin Antonescu said on Monday that the Liberal parliamentarians would suggest to their colleagues in the majority supporting Klaus Johannis sending a letter to Traian Basescu asking the President to designate him as Premier and withdrawing the mandate entrusted in this respect to Lucian Croitoru.

“The support given by PNL to Klaus Johannis being designated Prime Minister is maintained without hesitation. We and the other parties supporting this candidacy shall have a joint meeting with Lucian Croitoru tomorrow [Tuesday] and during this meeting we shall inform Croitoru too of a letter our parliamentarians suggested being signed, and we, all, parliamentarians, accepted to sign, we shall send it to Romania’s President.

We shall voice our option for designating Johannis and withdrawing the mandate entrusted to Lucian Croitoru, considering the clear lack of chances for him to be able to create a government. Our parliamentarians suggested it, we decided on it and it is a suggestion we are going to make to the other parties that support Johannis candidacy too,” said Antonescu at the end of the meeting of the PNL permanent delegation.

In the opinion of the Liberal leader this means of addressing the Head of State is “another formula” meant to make Traian Basescu take sensible action in order to put an end to the political crisis “that can stop tomorrow if the President understands to take note of this parliamentary reality.”

When asked if the Liberals will notify the Constitutional Court of a possible conflict among the state institutions generated by the refusal of the President to designate the candidate for Premier supported by the parliamentary majority, Crin Antonescu said that “for the time being” he hoped that Traian Basescu “will see things clearly.” “We shall possibly talk about the Constitutional Court afterwards,” said Antonescu.

Still the Liberal leader said that they would hold the joint meeting of Parliament at the end of which they should make a decision meant to demonstrate the existence of a parliamentary majority supporting Klaus Johannis.
“The joint meeting will be held too. For the time being we are trying to gain time, we are trying to offer the President what he asked for at a certain time, namely all parliamentarians voicing in Parliament a certain political will and here it is, this way we think we can voice it very clearly both for him and for the public opinion,” said Crin Antonescu.

The PNL chairman also said that during the permanent delegation of the party they reiterated the will of the Liberal parliamentarians not to give in to the “threats, pressures, even blackmail connected to the early elections.”
“The PNL parliamentarians unanimously decided on supporting the variant with a Johannis independent government and on defending the right of the parliamentary majority to fulfil its constitutional duties. There is no hesitation in this respect,” said Antonescu.