President Iohannis: DefMin filing administrative complaint against extension of General Ciuca mandate inopportune, risky

President Klaus Iohannis on Monday appreciated the administrative complaint filed against the decree on the extension of General Nicolae Ciuca's mandate as Chief of the Defence Staff as "inopportune" and "risky."

"I noticed that this Minister is very vocal (the Defence Minister - editor's note), although he wasn't able to come up with a legal proposal, he keeps insisting. There are two aspects. The proposal the Minister of Defence made in the CSAT meeting (Supreme Council for Country Defence) wasn't legal, as he proposed one person for two different offices, at the same meeting, which cannot be. The second matter that the Social Democratic Minister avoids to say is that, in fact, he had no proposal at all for the head of the Army. There is no such proposal that he made and submitted it to me or a nomination of a person who could hold this office. The decision that I made was the only one possible and fair, to prolong the mandate of the current head of the Army. Now PSD (the Social Democratic Party) is very angry and the Minister is very upset for this game of him didn't work, which changes absolutely anything," the head of state said at the Cotroceni Palace.

He added that the proposal of the Minister of Defence was "just not according to the law."

"The proposal of the Minister was just not according to the law, and a proposal for the head of the Army didn't actually exist. The fact that he is now filing an administrative complaint seems inopportune and risky to me. General Ciuca is a very respected person, holding an important office, in both our presidency apparatus and in the European and NATO military structures. What would a high ranked official from the army of a country that is our ally think if he found out that the Minister of Defence is contesting his own head of the Army? These are just some very wrongly through actions of the PSD," said the President.

In his opinion, the "game" that PSD plays is to "grab" all the important offices in the state.

"This cannot be. The offices in the state should be taken based on the competence criterion," said Iohannis.

Last week, the Minister of Defence filed a preliminary complaint with the Presidential Administration, by which he asked for the removal of the decree regarding the extension of the mandate of the Chief of the Defence Staff. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)