The president of PNL Gorj, senator Ion Iordache, asks the party's central leadership to leave the government, the liberals being dissatisfied with the way the Gorj County Council (CJ) distributes money to the town halls.
PHOTO PNL Gorj
“What is happening today at the CJ is neither moral, nor normal, nor legal. To tell so many representatives of the communities that they only do what they want, it seems to me that we do not live in a normal country or in a county that is moving in the right direction. That's why we made the decision, today, following these discussions, to request the central leadership of the party to leave the government, that we can't just carry the burden of this coalition, and let the PSD receive the benefits, it's not fair to the people, to the communities, to our mayors for this to happen, and the message that we are sending to the central leadership today is that the PNL Gorj organization requests the exit from the government”. said Ion Iordache, in a press statement held following a discussion between the majority of PNL mayors in the county and the president of CJ Gorj, Cosmin Popescu (PSD), according to Agerpres.
The mayor of Rovinari, Robert Filip, stated that, in Gorj, the governing coalition does not work.
“Unfortunately, we are at CJ Gorj, where, after 30 or so years, the same tactic of the colored pen is applied. We went to discuss with the president a normal matter for Gorj county, because the president and CJ address all the citizens of Gorj and we find that, with the tactic of the colored pen, the money is divided according to these political criteria. (…) Of those who are going to receive money, more than half of them or three quarters have surpluses, without having any commitments behind them for projects, and the differences between the PSD mayors and the PNL mayors are extremely large in terms of the amounts received. (…) Today we are in a governing coalition that doesn't work in Gorj, thanks to this fact the mayors came here, let's have a civilized dialogue, we didn't manage to find any consensus and reach a conclusion and that's why we we want to be a signal for those in Bucharest, who should intervene for this, because we would agree to send even a proposal to leave the government”said Robert Filip.
The mayor of the Roşia de Amaradia commune, Liviu Cotojman, said that, this year, the town halls with the largest surplus also receive money.
“Today we wanted to convince the president of the CJ to return to the draft decision regarding the distribution of amounts to UATs, considering that otherwise it is addressed to certain communities managed by PSD mayors. If we look at last year's surplus, we find that this year also the mayors who had the biggest surplus received money”mentioned Cotojman.
Present at the discussions, the prefect of Gorj county, Iulian Popescu, declared that he witnessed “a new episode of vile government, of vile administration” in Gorj.
“Today we are witnessing a new episode of vile government, of vile administration here, in Gorj County, an episode of a long series that has been going on for 34 years. The budget of the CJ, the CJ as an institution and the entire county were taken, captured per individual. Today, I attended the discussion between the president of the CJ and the mayors brought here, Mr. Senator, I personally attended and saw a Soviet attitude that I thought had disappeared a long time ago, it is an attitude of punch in the mouth, 'if you don't like it, you don't have what is he doing, we are in government, we have the vote'. (…) It is neither ethical, nor legal, nor moral”specified Iulian Popescu.
The president of CJ Gorj, Cosmin Popescu, believes that what happened on Thursday is a first step of the liberals for the electoral campaign.
“The electoral campaign is knocking on the door, June 9 is very close, (…) the manner of distribution of the broken down share of VAT and the amount for the maintenance of communal roads was contested every time. Every time I respected the law and I respect the law, (…), of course, there are complaints, every mayor wants the highest possible sums. The opportunity is determined by the CJ through the vote it will give today. (…) I don't think that over time, seven years, you have heard of any mayor being put in difficulty for the implementation of a project from the state budget, from European funds, all those who had projects received the support of CJ Gorj and they all completed these projects. This will happen this year as well, it is only a first stage, budget corrections are coming, we are talking about surpluses. (…) I know very clearly the surplus at each town hall (…)”said Cosmin Popescu.
