President Nicolae Timofti rejected the request of Mihai Ghimpu on speeding up the dismissal of the Defense Minister Anatoly Salaru. The statement was made for Deschide.MD by the Secretary General of the Presidency, Ion Paduraru.

According to him, Nicolae Timofti yesterday sent a letter to Prime Minister Pavel Filip, whereby he asked for additional arguments regarding the dismissal of Salaru, but also organizational details relating to the appointment of a new minister.

"The Ministry of Defense is very important, and Mr. President, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces cannot leave the ministry without a leader. Normally, it would be to come to the President with proposals for two decrees: one on the dismissal of Mr. Salaru and the second concerning the appointment of the new minister. Now, already, I tend to think that it will not be done in time," declared Ion Paduraru.

Asked why Nicolae Timofti rejected the request of Mihai Ghimpu, the secretary general told us: "Between the president and Mr. Ghimpu there is no legal relationship, there is only one of a political nature. Mr. President did not have enough arguments to dismiss a minister who, in his opinion, is pro-European, pro-NATO and made several concrete actions in his work".

When asked to comment on allegations of Mihai Ghimpu that if not signing the decree, Nicolae Timofti will have to assume that the Ministry will be left without leadership, because Dodon will not appoint Munteanu, Paduraru said that's the problem of the Liberal Party, not the president.