Romanian president plays down tensions within ruling coalition

Romania's president Klaus Iohannis commented on Tuesday on the alleged tensions between the two main parties in the ruling coalition, saying that it's "absolutely normal to have different views within the governing coalition."

He added that he saw no disputes between the Liberal Party (PNL), the reformist alliance USR-PLUS, and the ethnic Hungarians' party UDMR - but only discussions.

Earlier in the same day, G4media.ro outlined ten disputes between the ruling coalition's two main forces. The most relevant is perhaps the dispute around the EUR 1.5 billion packages of grants initiated by the Liberals last year without, USR-PLUS claims, the final green light from the European Commission. On the same note, USR-PLUS argues for a complete overhaul of the Recovery and Resilience Plan drafted by the Liberals.

The rest of the disputes are either low level (the constitutional reforms regarding the number of MPs, which is not yet an acute issue) or negotiations for public positions.

"What you call disputes, in my opinion, are not disputes; they are discussions. A coalition is not like the army, where one commands and the others execute. A coalition is a living organism. There are discussions, not everyone has the same opinion, and from the discussion, which is neither argument nor divergence, a more or less public discussion emerges, and the solution is established," Iohannis said in a press conference held at the Cotroceni Palace.

The new Government led by former finance minister Florin Citu and backed by a center-right coalition made of PNL, USR-PLUS, and UDMR, took office just before Christmas, after more than two weeks of negotiations between the three parties.

(Photo source: Presidency.ro)