Romanian Minister Falls Victim to Battle at Opera

The cabinet of Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has recorded the third loss after Culture Minister Vlad Alexandrescu quit on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister sought Alexandrescu's resignation following an embarrassing dispute at the Bucharest National Opera, which the minister has failed to find a solution to.

 "A new management team will be appointed at the Opera to defuse the situation there," government spokesman Dan Suciu said on Wednesday.

"The Prime Minister's Control Body will be there starting from next week to investigate what was going on there," Suciu added.

A clear hint about this denouement came after vice-premier Vasile Dincu met Opera representatives on Tuesday to resolve the conflict that has lasted more than two weeks, during which four interim general managers have been appointed by the Culture Minister.

Trouble erupted the Opera started when Tiberiu Soare, who took over as interim manager after the former manager was indicted of corruption, removed Dabnish choreographer Johan Kobborg as the artistic director, accusing the Dane of having run the company like a private business.

The conflict split the dancers in the Opera into two camps, with  foreign ballet dancers and some of their Romanian colleagues supporting Kobborg and Romanian employees backing Soare. In a recent twist, the Opera banned Kobborg from the premises entirely.

Alexandrescu is the third minister to leave cabinet of Prime Minister Ciolos, after former European Funds Minister Ana Raducu resigned only on Monday. Former Labour Minister Ana Costea left the government on April, 15.