Romania Faces Crisis as PM Refuses to Quit

Romania faced a mounting political crisis on Thursday after the ruling Social Democrat Party, PSD, moved to sack its own six-month-old government - only for Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu to refuse to give way.

The Prime Minister instead accused his party leader, Liviu Dragnea, of trying to keep a tight grip over the party and the government.

The PSD sought the resignation of the entire cabinet after a heated meeting on Wednesday when the party leadership evaluated the current government as unsatisfactory.

All the ministers in the cabinet then submitted their resignations and the PSD leadership voted to withdraw backing for Grindeanu.

But, after a heated argument over the performance of the cabinet, Grindeanu stormed out of the PSD National Executive Committee meeting, vowing to stay in office.

PSD leader Dragnea on Wednesday night denied having demanded the PM's resignation, however, and said the intention was to just assess the activity of the government.

However, at a late-night press conference, Grindeanu insisted that Dragnea had tried to convince him to resign, and had offered him several other posts in exchange for his sacrifice.

He also criticized the evaluation presented by the party leadership, implying that it was a political farce designed to falsely show that his cabinet was incompetent.

"Although we have a good economy and some ministers really worked on it, maybe most of them, I told Dragnea that we should both take responsibility for this alleged failure. Let's both resign. I didn't see that happening," Grindeanu said.

He added that it was Dragnea who had chosen the members of the cabinet, instead of the Prime Minister and said that, given the opportunity once more, Grindeanu would choose his...