Liberals demand Agriculture Minister's resignation

National Liberal Party (PNL) demands the resignation of Agriculture Minister Ilie Sarbu for “the policy of leading the producers in this field bankrupt”, for having blocked the privatisation of the former State Farms (IAS) and for having hindered the restitution of the forestry and agricultural lands.

“The sins of the priest are even more,” Ludovic Orban, member of PNL leadership said. For instance, he said that granting 1 million lei for each hectare of cultivated land was “arbitrarily” performed by the counties’ agriculture departments and only about 75% of the producers actually received the money. Furthermore, some 2 million land owners having cultivated smaller surfaces were ignored, Orban said.

The liberal representative also criticised the emergency ordinance regarding the agricultural exploitations, which, in his opinion, is actually “a collectivisation with a human face”.

Orban was also dissatisfied that Agriculture Minister “abandoned” the producers from the hill and mountain regions and did nothing concrete to open the agriculture negotiation chapter with the EU.