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Members of Citu Government take oath of office
The members of the Government led by Prime Minister Florin Citu have taken the oath of office, on Wednesday evening, in a ceremony at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.
The government led by Prime Minister Florin Citu was invested, on Wednesday, by Parliament. Voting "for" the list of ministers and the governing programme were 260 deputies and senators, while 186 voted "against".
The vote was secret with urns and tokens and was granted for both the governing programme, as well as for the ministers' list. In order for the Government to be invested, the vote of the majority of MPs was necessary, meaning 228 votes "for".
The composition of the Government is as follows:
* Florin-Vasile Citu - Prime Minister;
* Ilie-Dan Barna - Deputy Prime Minister;
* Kelemen Hunor - Deputy Prime Minister;
* Alexandru Nazare - Minister of Finance;
* Lucian Nicolae Bode - Minister of Internal Affairs;
* Bogdan Lucian Aurescu - Minister of Foreign Affairs;
* Stelian-Cristian Ion - Minister of Justice;
* Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca - Minister of National Defence;
* Claudiu-Iulius-Gavril Nasui - Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship, and Tourism.
* Virgil-Daniel Popescu - Minister of Energy;
* Catalin Drula - Minister of Transport and Infrastructure;
* Nechita-Adrian Oros - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development;
* Tanczos Barna - Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests;
* Cseke Attila-Zoltan - Minister of Development, Public Works and Administration;
* Cristian Ghinea - Minister of Investments and European Projects;
* Raluca Turcan - Minister of Labor and Social Protection;
* Vlad Vasile Voiculescu - Minister of Health;
* Sorin-Mihai Cimpeanu - Minister of Education;
* Ciprian-Sergiu Teleman - Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitization;
* Bogdan Gheorghiu - Minister of Culture;
* Novak Carol-Eduard - Minister of Youth and Sports.
The ceremony at the Cotroceni Palace was attended by the Chair of the Senate, Anca Dragu, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Ludovic Orban, and the President of the Constitutional Court of Romania, Valer Dorneanu.
On this occasion, President Klaus Iohannis spoke shortly about the objectives of the new team and told them "Get to work!".
"The Romanian citizens were promised a restructuring of the state, important reforms in domains such as healthcare, education, important reforms in the large public systems, reduction of bureaucracy, but also short-term objectives - the efficient combating of the pandemic," said the head of state.
"The new Parliament, together with me, with all state authorities, will do as promised," he added. Iohannis ended his remarks at the end of the swearing-in ceremony by prompting the Government to "Get to work!".
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Citu Cabinet will have 21 members- the PM, 2 deputy PMs and 18 ministers, with only one minister being woman, Raluca Turcan who is replacing Violeta Alexandru as Labour minister. Asked about the poor representation of women in the future Cabinet, the Liberal chairman Ludovic Orban said that “these were the proposal made by the three parties in the new ruling coalition”. “These are the proposals advanced by the parties in the coalition (…) We respect these decisions”, Orban said.
Also questioned on the nomination of Sorin Campeanu as Education minister despite controversies that the latter defended ex-PM Victor Ponta in his plagiarized PhD thesis scandal, Orban replied that Campeanu’s career as a whole must be taken into account, and that his academic career recommends him for this position.
“We must analyse his entire career. He is the guarantee of implementing the Educated Romania programme. We trust his capacity to enforce this programme“, Orban commented.
Sorin Campeanu was Education minister before in the fourth Ponta Cabinet and interim PM for 12 days in November 2015 after the Ponta’s resignation following the Colective fire.
Campeanu was founding member of Pro Romania, but resigned and joined PNL early this year, as he was one of the left-wing MPs who voted the censure motion against Viorica Dancila Gov’t, which enabled Liberals to come to power.