Mureșan: "Either our government, or early elections." He also pushed the RMDSZ a bit against the wall

Prime Minister-designate Siegfried Mureșan told the parliamentary factions of the National Liberal Party (PNL) on Tuesday that he would go through with the installation procedure and appear before Parliament for a vote of confidence, even though the Social Democratic Party (PSD) had announced it would not support his government.

According to Mediafax sources, Mureșan listed three reasons. "It's clear that we will go through with the procedure and stand for a parliamentary vote for the following three reasons," he said. The first is respect for the head of state and the constitutional procedure; the second is that he wants to present to Parliament a vision of a "modern," "pro-European, reformed Romania." The third: "So that people can see how each party votes. Let them know what the situation is in Parliament. Parliament has not been seriously tested in recent months."

At the meeting, Mureșan also outlined some directions of his government program. He believes reform must start with the state: the number of members of parliament must be reduced to match the population according to the census, and state agencies must be merged. The list includes reforming special pensions and ending the practice of someone receiving both a pension and a state salary at the same time. In his view, state-owned companies need "efficient management," and the tax authority should focus primarily on major tax fraud. The prime minister-designate also rejected the idea of further tax increases.

"There is no need for a tax increase, nor for raising VAT. Of course, that's what was claimed yesterday at the PSD meeting. I never said such a thing. We will not do that."

– he reportedly said. On Monday evening, Mureșan also stated that he would like to bring VAT back down from 21 to 19 percent, but only if the state of the budget allows it. The prime minister-designate again raised the possibility of early elections.

"It's clear that Romania's president has so far not supported early elections, but now there are two options: our government or early elections."

– he said. Before the vote, he also issued a warning:

"I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of a PSD MP who could lose their mandate in the event of early elections. Or in the position of a representative of a small party or group that might not make it back into Parliament."

This last remark could also have been a veiled message to Hunor Kelemen, since the RMDSZ chairman had, only a few days earlier, publicly lamented that Mureșan should return his mandate, since he wouldn't be able to form a government anyway, and that if Parliament took the matter far enough, then "we too will have to think about what we're going to do," which is rather odd coming from an organization that is, in principle, not only a supporter but also a nominator of Mureșan.

The PSD leadership unanimously decided on Monday not to vote for Mureșan's government.

"Today the PSD decided that it will NOT vote for the Bolojan 2.0 government! The PSD will only vote for a government of which it is a member, whether a minority or a coalition government."

– said party chairman Sorin Grindeanu. He added: "I saw that Mr. Mureșan proudly announced that he wants to be Bolojan's disciple. That's why the PSD CANNOT vote for him." The decision will be submitted to the party's National Political Council. Grindeanu also criticized the fact that Mureșan had not said where he would find the roughly 30 billion lei missing from the budget. According to sources, at the party leadership meeting a former PSD minister said he would rather see early elections than have Mureșan's government voted in. A day earlier, in a television interview, Grindeanu did not rule out the possibility of the PSD forming a government with AUR. The leader of AUR's Senate faction, Petrișor Peiu, responded on Tuesday that if Grindeanu invited them, they would go and negotiate with him.

According to Mediafax's calculations, the PNL, USR and RMDSZ, which support Mureșan, together have 169 deputies and senators, while at least 233 votes are needed to install the government. Even in the best-case scenario, if Mureșan were to get the votes of the 17 representatives of national minorities and up to 23 independent MPs, he would reach a total of 209 votes, 24 short of the required number. Nevertheless, Mureșan again refused on Tuesday to return his mandate.

Ugar