Second Romanian Minister loses job over teenager’s kidnapping and murder
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Romania’s prime minister has fired her education minister over her comments about a kidnapping case.
Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said Ecaterina Andronescu’s remarks about a teenager’s abduction show a “lack of understanding” who amongst other comments said on TV she was taught “not to get in cars with strangers”.
Alexandra Macesanu, 15, was kidnapped west of the capital, Bucharest, last Wednesday.
The comments, the Prime Minister said were irresponsible, but Andronescu said she did not intend to blame the victim or her parents.
The Romanian Minister of National Education Ecaterina Andronescu. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT
The education minister is the latest Romanian government official to lose her job over the case, which has caused public outcry.
Romania’s police chief Ioan Buda has been sacked and interior minister Nicolae Moga has stepped down, but critics are demanding more resignations.
Alexandra disappeared last Wednesday while hitchhiking to her home in the southern city of Caracal, police said. Police waited for 19 hours to search the property where she was being held, by which time she was already dead.
DNA results have confirmed that a kidnapped 15-year-old Romanian girl was dead, her uncle said on social media late on Friday, in a case that has stoked public outrage and revealed deep flaws in the European Union member state’s public safety system.
A 65-year-old mechanic from the southern Romanian town of Caracal has confessed to killing Alexandra Macesanu, who went missing on July 24, and another 18-year-old girl last seen in April.
