Romania's ruling party withdraws support for its PM

Romania's ruling party has withdrawn political support for Premier Sorin Grindeanu and his Cabinet today after the party's leader said he had lost confidence in the government.

The Social Democratic Party voted unanimously to withdraw support for its government after a meeting lasting more than five hours. Party leaders said Grindeanu, who has been in office for six months, had failed to respect the party's governing program.

He remains in office, but the party threatened to expel him from the party if he did not resign. Grindeanu left the meeting before the vote without commenting.

Dragnea says he is dissatisfied with the government's performance, except in ministries headed by his political allies. Dragnea himself cannot be prime minister because he was convicted last year of vote-rigging.

Calin Popescu Tariceanu, the leader of a junior party in the governing coalition, said his Alliance of Liberals and Democrats no longer supports the government and the party's three ministers have agreed to resign.

Former Premier Victor Ponta, a Social Democrat, accused Dragnea of sparking a futile crisis and suggested he was envious of Grindeanu's relative popularity.

Grindeanu moved to decriminalize official misconduct in January, sparking huge protests that led him to withdraw the decree. Critics said Grindeanu's government was backtracking on its anti-corruption campaign.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)