Government reshuffle and temporary change in PSD top structures

Adrian Nastase, chairman of PSD (Social Democrat Party) and Prime Minister, on Saturday announced a temporary change in the party’s top structures and a Government reshuffle.

Four ministers and a state secretary are slated to hand in their resignations in order to dedicate their full time to the PSD, at a time when the ruling party is looking to perform internal restructuring, following the local elections. Consequently, four ministers (Gabriel Oprea, Ilie Sarbu, Marian Sarbu, Dan Nica) and state secretary Rovana Plumb will be promoted in the PSD hierarchy. They will become members of the Coordinating Bureau, the decision making body of the ruling party. The five politicians are part of PSD’s younger generation, and have gone up the party ladder under Adrian Nastase’s leadership. Except for Ilie Sarbu, who used to be a member of the PSD Permanent Delegation, none of them had been appointed to a party ruling position before.

Ilie Sarbu, Minister of Agriculture, will be replaced by Petre Daea, currently a state secretary in the ministry. The new Minister of Communications and Information Technology, replacing Dan Nica, will be state secretary Adrian Ticau. Gabriel Oprea, a Delegate Minister with the Ministry of Administration and Interior, will be followed by Gheorghe Emacu. The latter has been a state secretary and has had a notable evolution in the past two years. For ten years, until 2002, the future minister was a juridical consultant at the Ministry of Defence. Bogdan Niculescu Duvaz, who had been initially slated to run for Bucharest Mayor, will replace Marian Sarbu as Delegate Minister in the relation with Trade Unions. Niculescu Duvaz is familiar with the Victoria Palace (the Romanian Government’s headquarters), as he was a minister before, both in the Petre Roman Government and under the rule of the former coalition (1996-2000).

Another change will be operated at the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity. The current minister, Elena Dumitru, will be replaced by Senator Dan Mircea Popescu, who held the same position in the Government run by former PM Nicolae Vacaroiu. The social policy enforced by the 1992-1996 government was one of the week points of Vacaroiu’s Cabinet.

The reshuffle operated at this ministry seems to be of an electoral nature. No comments were made about the performances of the above-mentioned ministers, but, shortly after elections, high-ranking PSD officials, such as Octav Cozmanca, said that the electoral results of the PSD, which were below expectations, had been triggered by the people’s discontent with the social ministries, which made a government reshuffle mandatory. The Labour Ministry is one of those ministries.

Elena Dumitru climbed the political ladder very quickly, as a member of PSD. After leaving the Democrat Party (PD) two years ago, Elena Dumitru was appointed advisor to the Prime Minister and became Labour Minister last year. Premier Adrian Nastase commented on Dumitru’s replacement saying that Dan Mircea Popescu can “pump up more adrenaline” into this field. However, Elena Dumitru will not be sent away from the Victoria Palace, as she will be appointed state councilor of the Prime Minister and will also be working within the party structures.

mirela.luca@zf.ro