Prime Minister Popescu-Tăriceanu dismissed Macovei on 2 April 2007, when he reshuffled his cabinet primarily to exclude the Democratic Party of President Traian Băsescu, with whom he remained engaged in a prolonged and heated public feud. Before and while she was Justice Minister, Macovei claimed to be politically independent. Nonetheless, President Băsescu's Democratic Party (PD) consistently backed her. The media reported that Popescu-Tăriceanu and his National Liberal Party (PNL) sought to expel her from the cabinet partially because she supported Băsescu and the PD in opposing Popescu-Tăriceanu's decision to postpone Romania's European Parliament elections that year due to what he characterized as ongoing domestic disputes.