How did reformist health minister Vlad Voiculescu become the Romanian ruling coalition’s apple of discord?

Vlad Voiculescu, one of the stars of the reformist alliance USR-PLUS, lasted less than four months in his second term as Romania’s health minister. Liberal prime minister Florin Citu decided to dismiss him on April 14, sparking the first big scandal in the ruling coalition.

Vlad Voiculescu thus becomes the first minister removed from Citu’s cabinet, but this does not come as a surprise. In just three months, Voiculescu has clashed with Liberal mayors and ministers and with the prime minister himself and has been under fire by the opposition and the local media for failing to manage the COVID-19 crisis when, in fact, he had little power to do it.