January 16 (SeeNews) - Romania's prime minister Mihai Tudose resigned on Monday evening after only six months in office.
"I resigned. I said that if I lose party support I will do so," Tudose said in a televised statement.
Just minutes before the statement, the decision-making executive committee of the governing Social Democrat Party (PSD) voted to withdraw party support for Tudose. The decision was passed in a 60-4 vote with 4 abstentions. Tudose himself did not vote.
This is the second time in less than a year when PSD sacks its own government.
While in June PSD filed a censure motion against the government led by ex-prime minister Sorin Grindeanu, citing its poor performance, now it is unclear what exactly made the party withdraw support for Tudose.
Asked by journalists during a PSD news conference on Monday night what Tudose had done wrong, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea spoke about increasing tensions between the party and the cabinet, without pinpointing a specific mistake.
"There were various reproaches, the general conclusion was that we can not continue like this because there is conflict between the party and the government as well as inside the government," Dragnea told the news conference.
Also, Dragnea admitted that he did not have a good hand in the selection of prime ministers, so he will let the party members make the nominees for the position next time.
However, problems might have started with a recent television interview, in which Tudose said that Dragnea often takes important decisions without consulting other senior party members.
Also, last week, Tudose and Dragnea disagreed on whether interior minister Carmen Dan should resign after a police officer was charged with pedophilia.
Tudose's resignation will have to be approved by president Klaus Iohannis.
The Tudose cabinet was voted into office at end-June, after the government led by Sorin Grindeanu lost a no-confidence vote requested by PSD.
At the end of 2017, Romanians protested for seven Sundays in a row against against the government's plans to appoint Romania's chief prosecutor without the consent of the president. Critics see this and other planned changes to the Criminal Code as attempts to weaken the fight against corruption in Romania.
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