Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis asked Prime Minister Viorica Dancila to resign on Friday after the government approved a secret memorandum to move the country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and failed to consult the president on it.
“Mrs. Dăncilă does not cope with her position of Prime Minister of Romania and thus it turns the government into a vulnerability for Romania.
“That is why I call publicly for her resignation,” Iohannis said in a statement.
Romania’s government has backed moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, drawing a warning from the president – who has the final say – that the move could break international law.
Under Romanian legislation, the final say on embassy relocation belongs to the president, who said he had not been consulted. Dancila also paid a state visit to Israel earlier this week and did not consult the president before leaving the country.
Any decision on embassy relocation rests with the president, who said he was not consulted about that or the state visit Dancila paid to Israel this week along with the leader of her Social Democrat party, Liviu Dragnea.
Dancila has said the memorandum she approved was confidential and could not be made public yet.
Iohannis, who has the final say in foreign policy matters, said moving the embassy to Jerusalem, which is not widely recognised as Israel’s capital due to competing sovereignty claims by the Palestinians, has said the move could break international law.
“A secret document, a secret foreign policy memorandum, was discussed last week in the government. That was a big mistake.
“Because in foreign policy matters, if we are talking about secret documents, which obviously are sensitive otherwise they should not be secrets.
“Meanwhile, the president should have been consulted, which did not happen,” Iohannis stressed.
However Dancila has yet to comment on his call for her to resign.
Romania would be the first EU country and one of very few countries in the world to relocate its embassy following U.S. President Donald Trump recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December.
