June 15 (SeeNews) - Romania's prime minister Sorin Grindeanu refused to step down on Wednesday night after the decision making making body of governing Social Democratic Party (PSD) withdrew support for his six-month old coalition cabinet citing poor performance.
"I will not resign. Here's why: The PSD's Executive Comittee does not own Romania. I will resign when president Klaus Iohannis names another prime minister from PSD, following consultations with the parties," Sorin Grindeanu said at a conference broadcast by Digi 24 station.
The executive commitee of PSD decided earlier on Wednesday that the government's performance was poor in the six months in office, prompting all ministers to step down. The resignations were submitted to the government's secretariat and now Grindeanu must sign and send them to president Iohannis for approval within 15 days.
Grindeanu also said he proposed to PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who put him in charge in December last year, to share responsibility for the performance of the government and resign simultaneously with him, but his request has gone unanswered.
"It has been and it is very difficult for me to understand where these things come from, why do you have to put pressure on your own ministers, which you put in office. I have not found any possible answers but one, namely the desire of one man to have all the power," Grindeanu said, referring to Dragnea.
Earlier on Wednesday, the PSD leader told a conference of the government coalition partners: "We can no longer speak of government as long as all the ministers have submitted their resignations. Grindeanu has no government anymore."
A new meeting of the executive committee of PSD will be called on Thursday to discuss a nomination for a new prime minister that will be forwarded to the president, Dragnea added.
Grindeanu's decision to resign only if Iohannis appoints a new prime minister leaves only one legal option available to PSD - to initiate a censure motion against its own government. In Romania's history, this has only happened once, in 1999, when National Peasant Christian Democratic Party (PNCTD) withdrew support for its own prime minister Radu Vasile.
The executive commitee of PSD assessed the performance of the government ministers considering their adherence to the governance programme of left-wing PSD, which was at the core of the party's campaign for the regular general election held on December 11.
PSD won 221 of a total of 463 seats in the two houses of parliament in the election. After the vote, with the help of centre-right coalition partner Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE), PSD got a comfortable majority of 250 seats.
ALDE was the first to withdraw support for Grindeanu on Wednesday.
The last reshuffle of Grindeanu's cabinet took place in February, when he replaced four ministers following resignations prompted by mass protests against a government decree that would have eased or scrapped penalties for corruption offences committed by public officials.
Grindeanu was appointed prime minister on December 30.