The Bucharest Government Continues its Mandate
After having survived Tuesdays no confidence vote in Parliament, the Bucharest Government announced that one of its priorities is to forge another agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
Bogdan Matei, 30.09.2015, 13:46
The Social Democrat Victor Ponta, who has been the head of Romania’s Government since the spring of 2012, faced another no-confidence motion on Tuesday, the fourth so far. This time, however, the motion was rather atypical, as the argument put forth by the Opposition had to do more with the prime ministers legal problems rather than with the government’s technical errors.
The Liberals, who initiated the no-confidence motion, argued that Victor Ponta can no longer be head of the government because he lost his credibility after being sent to court by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate for forgery of private documents, accessory to tax evasion and money laundering.
Alongside the former Social Democratic senator Dan Sova, Ponta is accused of involvement, while a lawyer, in a case of legal assistance contracts signed by the Turceni and Rovinari power companies that damaged the state budget with 16 million euros. Nevertheless, as of June 5, when the anti-corruption prosecutors made public the charges brought against the Prime Minister, Victor Ponta has repeatedly dismissed them and has turned down President Klaus Iohannis’s calls for his resignation.
Predicted and anticipated by almost all commentators, the failure of the motion dubbed “You must choose between Romania and its compromised Premier, Victor Ponta. Sack Victor Ponta!” gives him the perfect chance to continue his mandate. That is because the Opposition is allowed to file a similar motion only next spring.
In order to pass, the motion needed to be supported by at least 276 senators and deputies, that is half plus one of the total voters. It only got 207 votes in its favour and 8 against it, as – after having publicly expressed their support for the Cabinet – the MPs in power, that is the Social Democratic Party, the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, refused to cast their vote.
Once the Government’s position reconfirmed, the Finance Minister, Eugen Teodorvici announced that Romania would officially ask the IMF to sign another loan agreement with Romania. Negotiations, he said, would focus on structural reforms and not on maintaining the budget deficit. He last precautionary agreement that Romania signed with the IMF in 2013, worth 2 billion euros, expired on Saturday. Its purpose was to protect the Romanian economy from possible shocks from foreign markets.
Since the start of the economic crisis, in 2009 and up to present, Romania has forged three consecutive loan agreements with the IMF and the EU, which supported the government policies in the budgetary field, the privatisation of state-owned companies and macroeconomic stability. However, in the first half of this year, the Romanian authorities have passed a comprehensive tax cut package under the new Fiscal Code, which the Romanian Central Bank, the Romanian Fiscal Council and also the international financial institutions have criticised, souring the relationship between the Government and the IMF.
