Monday, March 19, 2007

PM Tariceanu plans to remove Justice minister Macovei from office


Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu informed the Senate leadership on Tuesday that he wanted the hold a speech in the Parliament on the issue of Justice reform this week. The Senate, which adopted a motion against Justice minister Macovei a month ago, scheduled Tariceanu for Wednesday at noon.

Political sources told HotNews.ro that the prime minister was firmly determined to remove Macovei from the Government, despite her huge popularity with European Union officials.

Macovei, whose moves to reform the Justice system have been welcomed by Brussels authorities over the past two years, has been involved in a series of disputes with politicians resisting among others her efforts to establish an body to keep in check the wealth of elected officials.

Such opposition resulted in a vote against Macovei in the Senate in February, supported by opposition parties and PM Tariceanu’s National Liberal Party.

Macovei represents the Democratic Party in the Government. According to Hotnews.ro sources, one way that she might be removed from office would be a PM’s decision to remove all Democratic ministers from the Government, thus bringing an end to the governing coalition in power since the 2004 elections.

“It is possible that Monica Macovei be removed within hours, days”, one source said.

Asked whether the Liberals were considering dropping all Democratic Party (PD) ministers, prominent Liberal Crin Antonescu said: “considering how our colleagues from the PD behave, I would say yes”.

The Constitutional Court decided recently that Macovei should not necessarily resign following the motion against her in the Senate.

HotNews.ro, Mar 13, 2007

0 comments:



Post a Comment