No confidence motion against the government

Without the votes of the opposition, the majority coalition adopted the no confidence motion against their own government headed by Sorin Grindeanu.

Ştefan Stoica, 21.06.2017, 13:28

Today’s vote in Parliament of a majority coalition against its own government was a first in Romania’s post-Communist history. Dissident Social Democrat PM Sorin Grindeanu and another two rebel ministers were blamed for their lack of political maturity and responsibility and for deciding to govern on their own behalf although the PSD had withdrawn their political support.

The motion was the only constitutional solution to which the PSD and ALDE could resort, in the context in which PM Sorin Grindeanu refused to step down, in spite of losing the political support of the PSD and most of his ministers and of being excluded from the PSD.

In his defense, PM Sorin Grindeanu told Parliament that he did not understand why the PSD wanted to remove its own government at a moment when the governing process was going well, as proved by economic statistics. He has warned that passing the no confidence motion means that the PSD is no longer the governing party, thus becoming dependant on President Klaus Iohannis.

In retort, the PSD leader, Liviu Dragnea, said the government and the prime minister did not perform well and that Wednesday’s vote meant the continuation of the PSD-ALDE governance, as the Romanian citizens voted in the December 2016 legislative elections. The scandal in the governing coalition started from the assessment of the Grindeanu cabinet’s activity, 6 months after the government was installed. The assessment pointed to big delays in implementing the governing program.

PM Grindeanu rejected the assessment as ungrounded and defied the assessor, a former finance minister investigated for serious corruption acts, considering him unreliable. Grindeanu’s opposition to Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the PSD, is the political surprise of the summer, according to commentators.

Apparently submissive to the party leader, Grindeanu has proved unexpected courage. He denounced Dragnea’s authoritarian style conditioning his resignation on Dragnea’s own resignation. Some observers claim that the real reason behind the vote against Grindeanu is the government’s delay in promoting the justice law and the criminal codes in the relaxed forms that would help Dragnea in a criminal case in which he is accused of incitement to abuse of office.

PM Sorin Grindeanu’s revolt and the PSD leadership’s reaction to it, a no confidence motion against its own government, will surely have consequences within the PSD. Their voters will wonder what happened with the party’s force and cohesion in only 6 months after taking power, in the context in which, in the absence of a strong parliamentary opposition, the president and the citizens were the only ones to sanction the government’s actions.

For Romania, Wednesday’s vote should be a first step towards solving the political crisis. President Klaus Iohannis has given assurances that, despite the political crisis, Romania is a stable country, because it has a very good economic situation and is seen as a trustworthy partner.