Romania’s President and Prime Minister, at each other’s throats on the refugee issue

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Victor Ponta seem to have forgotten where they buried the peace pipe as their relationship becomes tenser by the day. The two statesmen left all courtesy aside in the past two days as they attacked each other on the refugee theme. The first one to deal the blow was Iohannis, who said on Sunday that the Prime Minister “went on a trip” to Sofia without any mandate to engage Romania on the refugee theme. He made this statement after Victor Ponta met on Saturday with the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Serbia, in Sofia. Ponta said after the meeting that the three countries decided they would close their borders to refugees if Germany and Austria decided to do the same. He added that Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia decided to take this common stand on the refugee matter. Their meeting took place just one day before a mini-summit on the refugee matter that took place on Sunday in Brussels. It was President Klaus Iohannis, not Victor Ponta who represented Romania at this summit, which aimed to bring Germany, Austria and the countries in the Western Balkans on the same page and find solutions to handle the refugee wave passing through the West Balkans and moving towards Western Europe. “The Prime Minister didn’t consult with me before walking to Sofia and meeting other Prime Ministers, he did this as a weekend pastime. Mr. Ponta had no mandate to engage Romania in any way. His statements are totally unbinding for me,” said Iohannis before flying to Brussels. The Prime Minister’s acid response came on Monday. He accused the President of passiveness during the international talks on the refugee matter and claimed he and his fellow prime ministers in Bulgaria and Serbia only wanted to take action and prevent their countries from becoming a “buffer zone” for refugees, between Hungary’s fences and the wave that keeps coming from Greece. “The problem is not what Mr. Iohannis says, the problem is that he doesn’t do anything. Do you know what he did in Brussels? The rest of the prime ministers always tell me that he goes to Brussels like the deaf to the dance. He goes there and shuts up, he comes back and shuts up,” said Ponta, adding that, under these circumstances, it was his duty to make sure that the refugee problem didn’t affect Romania. He also said he didn’t need a mandate from the President to meet other prime ministers. Romania gives more money to refugees Romania’s President changes his mind about refugees PM: Romania cannot receive more than 1,500 refugees editor@romania-insider.com