Sorin Grindeanu announced Thursday that the Social Democratic Party is ready to take over the Romanian government, and to demonstrate this readiness the party has constructed a full-size, fully staffed replica of the Victoria Palace in a field outside Bucharest, where a shadow cabinet has been governing around the clock for three weeks.
«We told the president we are ready to lead, and we meant it literally,» Grindeanu said. «Every ministry has its office in the replica. The ministers arrive at seven in the morning, they hold meetings, they issue decisions, and at the end of the day they go home. We are not waiting for an invitation to start working.»
The replica includes a working elevator, a canteen serving the same menu as the real government, and a parking lot where the shadow ministers park in the same order they would park at the real building. Grindeanu said the party has been running the replica for twenty-two days and has already produced a full budget for next year, which it keeps in a drawer until the moment it is needed.
«When we take over, we will simply move the furniture,» he said. «The decisions are already made. The ministers already know their schedules. We have rehearsed the handover so many times that the real building will feel like a formality.»
Asked about the cost of the replica, Grindeanu said it was «an investment in stability» and that the party had paid for it out of its own budget. He added that the shadow ministers have grown so accustomed to the replica that some have started referring to the real Victoria Palace as «the annex.»