Former Prime Minister Dacian Cholos said that in 2016 he offered President Klaus Iohannis to resign as head of government in order to run for parliament on the PNL list. “Mr. President did not agree to this because he was afraid of instability,” Cholos told Prima News, according to News.ro.

The former prime minister claims that he refused to run for the NLP in order not to repeat the model of Ion Iliescu.

After the revolution, Iliescu promised that the National Salvation Front would not participate in the first free elections in May 1990, but he broke his promise.

Dacian Cholos: I didn’t want to make this game

“I’m going to tell you something I don’t think I’ve said before. Then (not in 2016) both USR and PNL asked me to take part in the elections and run for office. And I told them both that while I promised not to run, I wanted to keep my word.

I don’t want to do what Ion Iliescu did when he created the FSN and said he would be the arbiter, organize the first free elections, only to find out a few weeks before that he was turning the FSN into a party. I didn’t want to play this game,” Dacian Cholos told Prima News.

After the December 1989 revolution, Ion Iliescu promised that the National Salvation Front would ensure the transition from communism to democracy without entering into political competition for power. However, in February 1990, the FSN became a party, and in May, Ion Iliescu won the first free elections of the post-communist era, gaining 85% of the votes from the FSN.

In November 2015, President Klaus Iohannis appointed Dacian Cholos as Prime Minister following the resignation of Victor Ponta following the Colectiv tragedy.

During the investiture, Cholos promised that he would remain a technocrat prime minister and not take part in the parliamentary elections in 2016. Later, during 2016, the liberals, led at the time by Alina Gorghiu, asked Dacia Čološ to run on the NLP list in the parliamentary elections, but Čološ refused.

Why Klaus Iohannis refused him

“In the fall (before the 2016 parliamentary elections – no), when the PNL and USR, but especially the PNL, very persistently offered me to join the party and run for office, I gave the same answer (negative – no). Even Mr. President Klaus Iohannis insisted that I join the PNL and participate in the elections.

After this insistence, I said, “Okay, if this is the only way to succeed in the election, I will take it. I am not afraid and assume it. But I cannot interfere with the government, which I formed myself from the beginning and which has to organize elections. I cannot remain prime minister, organize elections and be on the list of party candidates.

And then I told the president: “There is only one option, I will resign from the post of prime minister and go to the list. He can be one of the ministers who will provide an interim government for the election period and then a new government.” Mr. President did not agree with this because he was afraid of instability,” said Dacian Cholos after 7 years.

In 2016, the PSD, led at the time by Liviu Dragnia, won the parliamentary elections with a historic result: 45%. The PNL, which entered the campaign with the promise that Dacian Cholos would remain prime minister, received only 20%.

When asked whether the refusal to run on the PNL parliamentary list led to the break in relations with President Klaus Iohannis, Dacian Cholos answered:

“From my point of view, no. After that, I had a decent relationship with Mr. President for a long time, in the sense that we kept in touch, we exchanged opinions on topics related to Romania, the EU. Even during the period when I was the leader of the band RENEW, I kept in touch with him. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him since the formation of the Chuke government.”