What Ioan Nelu Botiș leaves behind and who could take over as Labour Minister

Labour Minister Ioan Nelu Botiș yesterday resigned from his position, in the wake of the press scandal surrounding the involvement of his wife in a project funded with EU money managed by the ministry he used to run. He remains a PDL (Democratic Liberal Party) MP, member of the Labour Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.

The new minister could be Raluca Turcan, PD-L vice-president, Claudia Boghiecevici, vice-president in the labour committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Marian Sârbu, chairman of UNPR (National Union for the Progress of Romania) or Gheorghe Barbu, secretary general of the Chamber of Deputies, the latter two previously holding positions as labour ministers.

With a mandate of less than eight months, Ioan Nelu Botiș had one of the toughest missions at the helm of the Labour Ministry. The labour code is by far the biggest legislative project he contributed to and that President Traian Băsescu promulgated.

“Minister Botiș was sent to deal with the trade unions, following the austerity measures enforced and the visits of the IMF officials: He was a sort of a fullback in a rugby match. He accomplished his mission because during his mandate the new Labour Code was promulgated. As far as I am concerned (the new labour code i.e.) is a mixture of populism and conservatism that will lead to no good, because the workforce continues to be overtaxed in Romania,” said Stelian Tănase, political analyst and professor at the Faculty of Political Science of the Bucharest University.