Parliament holds investiture vote on new government

The Parliament of Romania meets today to vote on the programme and line-up of the government proposed by the Liberal leader Ludovic Orban.

Ştefan Stoica, 04.11.2019, 13:55

Viorica Dancila’s Social Democratic
government was dismissed on the 10th of October following a
no-confidence vote in Parliament. This marked the end of an agony that lasted a
month and a half, during which the Social Democratic Party, already badly hit
by the poor results in the European elections, had to govern without its junior
partner, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, thus being accused by the
president and the opposition of being illegitimate. 238 MPs from across the
political spectrum, including from the Social Democratic Party, voted in favour
of the no-confidence motion initiated by the National Liberal Party. 233 votes
would have been enough to bring down Dancila’s government. It’s also 233 votes
that the new cabinet proposed by the Liberal leader Ludovic Orban needs in
order to win the investiture vote.

It was difficult for Orban to negotiate
the votes needed to end the Social Democratic rule, but it’s even more
difficult now to secure the votes that could turn the National Liberal Party
from the biggest opposition party into the ruling party. This is because not
all MPs who wanted the Social Democrats to leave the government are comfortable
with them being replaced by the Liberals. This is the case of the MPs from Pro
Romania, a splinter group of the Social Democratic Party who say they will not
abandon their leftist views, which makes them incompatible with the National
Liberal Party. Orban has presented Parliament with the same ministers
interviewed last week by Parliament’s specialist committees, despite the fact
that three of them received negative opinions. They are the Liberal senator
Florin Citu, proposed to take over the finance ministry; the head of the Bucharest
branch of the Liberal Party Violeta Alexandru, due to take over the labour
ministry; and the Liberal deputy Ion Stefan, a candidate for the ministry of
public works, development and administration. Ludovic Orban says the
committees’ vote was strictly political and that he has full confidence in his
team. He is optimistic about securing the needed investiture votes despite
question marks about quorum, given that the Social Democratic Party has already
announced they are not going to attend.

The prime minister designate is
counting on the support of 237 MPs from the National Liberal Party, the Save
Romania Union, the People’s Movement Party, the Alliance of Liberals and
Democrats and the national minorities, as well as independents and even some
Social Democrats and Pro Romania MPs. Ludovic Orban:

Despite the boycott, I am confident
that we will be able to give Romania a legitimate government that will get to
work on day one and solve the big problems facing Romania. We have organised
ourselves so as to secure quorum within the set deadline.

The outgoing prime minister Viorica
Dancila says the Social Democrats will not be in the room during the vote and
has threatened to expel the MPs who ignore the party’s decision. Viorica
Dancila:

We cannot possibly endorse a
programme that is against the Romanian people. It’s not important to replace
one person with another, they will have to answer to pensioners, the local
communities and mayors, regardless of their political orientation.

If it wins the investiture vote,
Ludovic Orban’s cabinet will have to address quickly a number of challenges
such as picking Romania’s candidate for the position of European commissioner,
after three failed attempts by the previous cabinet, and drafting the budget
for next year.