BUCHAREST: Romania’s liberal Prime Minister Florin Citu faced calls to resign on Thursday after he abruptly sacked a member of the junior coalition who criticised him over a pricey development project.
Citu, who has been prime minister since December, announced late on Wednesday that he had dismissed Justice Minister Stelian Ion, a member of the reformist USR-PLUS party. At the heart of the row is a controversial 10 billion-euro ($12 billion) development plan for local communities pushed by Citu and his National Liberal Party (PNL), the senior party in the centre-right government.