Dragnea: Gov't must be secured to continue governing programme; definitely, the PM shouldn't have come to DNA

Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Liviu Dragnea stated that the Government, which is facing "a high pressure," must be "secured," in order to be able to continue with the implementation of the governing programme, and also that the Prime Minister shouldn't have come to the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) headquarters to support him, considering that he is the head of the Executive. 

"We haven't spoken today, but we spoke the past day. Someone else was asking me today if he should have been there. Definitely no, because he is still the head of the Government," the PSD leader told Romania TV private television channel, when asked whether he discussed on Monday with Prime Minister Mihai Tudose. 

When he was told that the Prime Minister wasn't happy with the fact that some members of the Executive came to the DNA to support Liviu Dragnea, the latter explained: "I don't know this and we have enough enemies, about whom we spoke until now, for some time, so that I don't want to invent some artificial ones from inside as well." 

When asked whether PM Mihai Tudose contacted him on Monday, in the context in which the PM's honorific adviser, Gheorghe Pipierea, resigned after asking Liviu Dragnea to do the same gesture, the PSD leader said: "Yesterday we talked at the Social Democrat Youth Congress and after the Congress (...) and then we came together close to where I live." 

"We came together, he brought me in his car, we stepped down of the car, we discussed for 20 more minutes, we smoke a few cigarettes together, we discussed a lot," said Dragnea. 

With respect to the fact that Mihai Tudose's stand when ministers Sevil Shhaideh and Rovana Plumb were facing criminal charges was to have them removed from the Victoria Palace, the Social Democratic leader said: "We discussed about these thing at that point and there are is this huge pressure facing the Government, which is, after all, the Government that we endorse and that must try to accomplish everything that people approved by vote and it's better to be as "secured" as possible." 

"I said this before and I will say it again: I preferred to become a lightning rod and to be the one who is demonized," stated Dragnea. 

When asked whether the Prime Minister and the members of the Government will resist the pressure he mentioned, the Social Democrat leader said: "The Government must continue the government programme." 

"We, as a party, were first of all interested that the measures be implemented, that they start to produce effects, and many of those who were lying and continue to lie start to eat their tongues and they are going to do exactly so by the end of the year and next year. This is what the Government should be (...) In respect to the party, I saw how the members supported me, and not for they liked my moustache, but out of solidarity, frustration and revolt, while having to do with this abuses that can not be covered anymore. Even today I received messages from people who were not PSD members and they said that this is beyond what is acceptable, this escalation of abuses and this revelations over revelations scare them," Dragnea also said. AGERPRES .