Romania’s liberal Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca on Friday said he will remain the head of government until the government solves the school strike. “I decided not to submit my [governing] mandate,” Ciuca said, without taking questions from the press.
According to an agreement between his National Liberal Party, PNL, and the Social Democrats, PSD, he should have resigned on May 26. Next week consultations should take place in the presidential palace to install a government under the PSD’s Marcel Ciolacu instead of Ciuca.
Ciuca’s announcement was made alongside all the governing coalition leaders: PSD leader Ciolacu and Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania leader, UDMR, Kelemen Hunor.
“The government that I lead has consolidated political and parliamentary support. We are in front of you with the president of the PSD and the president of the UDMR. We all agreed that the only chance for us to overcome all these problems is to create a stable coalition,” said Ciuca.
Ciolacu said a timeline had been agreed with education union leaders to solve the crisis. “It is the right decision not to enter into political decisions until we resolve the teachers’ strike. Then, later, we will explore together the calendar for the [prime ministerial] rotation,” said Ciolacu.
The announcement of the three leaders took place a day after President Iohannis on Thursday said the planned rotation would not occur during the education sector strike.
Romanian teachers launched a general strike this week, demanding higher salaries and better work conditions.
After a new negotiation round with education unions on Thursday, the government announced that it would offer teachers a bonus of 2,500 lei [around 500 euros].
It has offered a pay rise for non-teaching staff of 9 per cent on average plus bonuses of 1,000 lei [200 euros]. But unions did not yet accept the offer, and the strike continued on Friday.
Source: Balkan Insight
