Viorica Dancila’s Social Democratic
\ngovernment was dismissed on the 10th of October following a
\nno-confidence vote in Parliament. This marked the end of an agony that lasted a
\nmonth and a half, during which the Social Democratic Party, already badly hit
\nby the poor results in the European elections, had to govern without its junior
\npartner, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, thus being accused by the
\npresident and the opposition of being illegitimate. 238 MPs from across the
\npolitical spectrum, including from the Social Democratic Party, voted in favour
\nof the no-confidence motion initiated by the National Liberal Party. 233 votes
\nwould have been enough to bring down Dancila’s government. It’s also 233 votes
\nthat the new cabinet proposed by the Liberal leader Ludovic Orban needs in
\norder to win the investiture vote. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It was difficult for Orban to negotiate
\nthe votes needed to end the Social Democratic rule, but it’s even more
\ndifficult now to secure the votes that could turn the National Liberal Party
\nfrom the biggest opposition party into the ruling party. This is because not
\nall MPs who wanted the Social Democrats to leave the government are comfortable
\nwith them being replaced by the Liberals. This is the case of the MPs from Pro
\nRomania, a splinter group of the Social Democratic Party who say they will not
\nabandon their leftist views, which makes them incompatible with the National
\nLiberal Party. Orban has presented Parliament with the same ministers
\ninterviewed last week by Parliament’s specialist committees, despite the fact
\nthat three of them received negative opinions. They are the Liberal senator
\nFlorin Citu, proposed to take over the finance ministry; the head of the Bucharest
\nbranch of the Liberal Party Violeta Alexandru, due to take over the labour
\nministry; and the Liberal deputy Ion Stefan, a candidate for the ministry of
\npublic works, development and administration. Ludovic Orban says the
\ncommittees’ vote was strictly political and that he has full confidence in his
\nteam. He is optimistic about securing the needed investiture votes despite
\nquestion marks about quorum, given that the Social Democratic Party has already
\nannounced they are not going to attend. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The prime minister designate is
\ncounting on the support of 237 MPs from the National Liberal Party, the Save
\nRomania Union, the People’s Movement Party, the Alliance of Liberals and
\nDemocrats and the national minorities, as well as independents and even some
\nSocial Democrats and Pro Romania MPs. Ludovic Orban:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Despite the boycott, I am confident
\nthat we will be able to give Romania a legitimate government that will get to
\nwork on day one and solve the big problems facing Romania. We have organised
\nourselves so as to secure quorum within the set deadline.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The outgoing prime minister Viorica
\nDancila says the Social Democrats will not be in the room during the vote and
\nhas threatened to expel the MPs who ignore the party’s decision. Viorica
\nDancila:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We cannot possibly endorse a
\nprogramme that is against the Romanian people. It’s not important to replace
\none person with another, they will have to answer to pensioners, the local
\ncommunities and mayors, regardless of their political orientation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
If it wins the investiture vote,
\nLudovic Orban’s cabinet will have to address quickly a number of challenges
\nsuch as picking Romania’s candidate for the position of European commissioner,
\nafter three failed attempts by the previous cabinet, and drafting the budget
\nfor next year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Parliament of Romania meets today to vote on the programme and line-up of the government proposed by the Liberal leader Ludovic Orban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":83459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[30711],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-83561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-investiture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n