Romanian PM excluded from Social Democratic Party, brings former PM Ponta into his cabinet

The scandal in Romania’s Social Democratic Party (PSD) continued on Thursday after Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu refused the party’s request to step down and was abandoned by all the ministers in his cabinet. PSD’s executive committee, made of 68 political leaders of the party, decided on Thursday to exclude Grindeanu from PSD, a party he has been a member of for over 21 years. The PSD leaders also voted to initiate a no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister. Both decisions were unanimously voted by the executive committee members, according to sources quoted by News.ro. Meanwhile, Sorin Grindeanu continued to defy his party’s leaders. Not only did he continue to refuse to resign, but he started appointing new members to his cabinet. The PM apparently plans to appoint former Social Democratic Prime Minister Victor Ponta as the Government’s General Secretary, according to political sources quoted by Mediafax. Victor Ponta is one of the few important PSD members who has expressed his support for Grindeanu in the past weeks as more and more PSD leaders started to criticize the cabinet. He’s also an adversary of PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who forced him to resign from the Prime Minister seat in November 2015, amid the Colectiv protests. Dragnea also followed Ponta as president of the Social Democratic Party in 2015. Sorin Grindeanu also called on the PSD leaders to allow a wider consultation within the party on the fate of his cabinet. He hopes that many PSD members would support him over their elected leaders. Meanwhile, President Klaus Iohannis urged the governing coalition to solve their political crisis before it affects Romania’s stability. editor@romania-insider.com