The Political Fight for the Prefectures Flares Up

The nomination of the new Prefects seems to be a tough issue for the Government. Arad follows Covasna. It is the second district where the Prefect function is being disputed by the parties inside the Governmental coalition.

MISSION. The Prime Minister, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, will have to find an agreement between the DUHR interests and the demands of the J.T. Alliance subsidiaries.

The leaders from Arad of the NLP (National Liberal Party) - DP (Democratic Party) Alliance asked the Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu to name one representative of this political formation to lead the Prefecture. They don’t want a representative of the DUHR (Democratic Union of the Hungarians in Romania) to lead it. "We have submitted a resolution at the Government’s Secretary in which we ask for a Prefect of the Alliance and we had private discussions with the Prime Minister regarding this issue", Deputy Titu Gheorghiof, the president of the NLP from Arad, said. Gheorghe Seculici, the DP president from Arad also considers that the J.T. (Justice and Truth) Alliance should be the one having a Prefect in the district. "Based on the local agreements, we have proposed three candidates of the Alliance for this job to the Government and they are all from NLP (Doru Sever Jurca, Valentin Paul Neamt and Adrian Nasui - n.e.)", Seculici said.

DETACHMENT. The DUHR doesn’t seem to hold onto the Prefect function. The DUHR President from Arad, Kiraly Andras, announced that the organization he leads nominated one candidate for the Prefect function and that he is the municipal counselor Levente Horvath. They didn’t ask for this function to the leaders of the DUHR. "The district organization didn’t make such a request, and the nominating of Arad has been made by the leaders of the parties forming the Coalition", said Kiraly Andras.

CRISIS. A much worse situation can be seen at Covasna, where the NLP - DP leaders announced that they would sue the Romanian state for violating the human rights if the Government would name a Hungarian Prefect. The two political formations, together with HPR (Humanist Party in Romania), sent a letter to President Traian Basescu and to Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu in which they ask them not to cease in front of the DUHR pressure. They threatened with their resignations and with the disappearance of the local subsidiaries in case their demands wouldn’t be met.

DENIAL

Yesterday, the Government refused to comment upon the situations in Covasna and Arad. The Executive’s spokesperson, Oana Marinescu, stated that Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu already announced that the instalments of the Prefects would take place on the 10th of January, and that there is nothing to talk about this until then. Emil Boc (photo), the DP leader, also didn’t jump to any conclusion regarding the dispute in Covasna. Boc said that there would be a meeting of the leaders of the four parties in order to find a solution to this problem and that they are yet to discuss with the presidents of the local subsidiaries regarding their threat of suing the Romanian state.