The new leadership of the National Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE) was voted on Wednesday by the united plenum of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in a session marked by harsh replies exchanges between the opposition representatives and the meeting chairman, Călin Popescu Tăriceanu. The new leadership of ANRE was validated by the Parliament with 220 votes in favor and 79 against. The vote was secret with bulletins, according to News.ro.

President of ANRE was appointed Dumitru Chiriţă, PSD deputy, for a five-year mandate. Zoltan Nagy-Bege was appointed as vice-president of ANRE, while for the two member positions of the Regulatory Committee of the Authority were appointed Gheorghe Gabriel Gheorghe (from ALDE, currently Secretary of State in the Ministry for the Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship) and Corina Sulger (PSD Olt), currently working at CEZ Vânzare.

During the debates, PNL and USR accused the politicizing of ANRE. The PNL deputies leader Raluca Turcan said that, after the Court of Auditors and the People’s Advocate, ANRE is also put under PSD political will. “Today the completion of the ANRE structure is being voted and the PNL parliamentarians do not understand why they have to vote in the plenary. The CExN decision or the Parliament’s statement through which you assumed that you are adding ANRE to the political buttonhole of the institutions controlled by the PSD, would have been enough. The State-party first started with the Court of Auditors, the People’s Advocate, the ASF…”, said Turcan.

The meeting chairman, Călin Popescu Tăriceanu, cut off the PNL deputy’s microphone on the grounds that she makes political statements. “Mr. President, you are abusive. I will stay here until you come back”, replied Turcan to Tariceanu.

After more insistence, Raluca Turcan ended her speech, accusing PSD of turning ANRE into a “political puppet”. “Nastase also struggled to close all the microphones and it did not help him at all. This should not be our behavior here. We look with concern at this approach regarding the role that you attribute to the institutions subordinated to the Parliament. Nastase also wanted control over the institutions and it did not help him at all”, said the PMP deputies leader Eugen Tomac.