The extraordinary plenary sitting
\nof the Romanian Parliament kicked off abruptly with a read-out of the text of
\nthe censure motion filed by the Social-Democratic Party and the Democratic
\nUnion of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania against the Liberal Government led by
\nLudovic Orban. The Social-Democrats have accused the Government for taking
\nresponsibility over the law modifying the election law, in the sense that the
\nlocal elections due this summer will be held in two rounds. Motion signatories
\nsay the Government must be urgently removed, because modifying the election law
\nahead of an election is breaching Constitutional Court rulings and goes against
\nthe recommendations of European bodies. The reasons behind the Liberals’ move
\nare purely political and disregard citizens’ rights, signatories also say. In
\nturn, the Liberals claim the modified election law ensures a better
\nrepresentation of elected officials and guarantees their legitimacy. Even if it
\noccurs in an election year, the return to the two-round election system will
\nimprove election legislation, therefore it would not infringe on European
\nrecommendations in the field. To pass, the motion needs 233 votes in favor.
\nSocial-Democrat interim president Marcel Ciolacu seems confident, saying the
\nSocial-Democrats will nominate a Prime Minister from outside the party ranks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I am confident we have the
\nnecessary votes. We also had a thorough conversation with my colleagues from
\nacross the country and it seems we will be nominating a Prime Minister from
\noutside the party. I will never vote any Liberal Government and as long as I am
\ninterim leader I will recommend against voting Orban as Prime Minister. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban
\nhowever believes the motion will fail. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
MPs from the National Liberal
\nParty will be attending the sitting and voting openly against the censure
\nmotion. I have entrusted the leaders of parliamentary parties with the task of
\nnegotiating with our partner groups and MPs individually, to persuade them of
\nthe benefits of the two-round voting system and hence to make them vote against
\nthe motion. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Whereas at first the motion was
\nseen as a symbolic gesture, as the Social-Democrats were believed not to go all
\nthe way towards snap elections, the perception has now changed. The risk that
\nthe snap elections should follow the removal of the Orban Cabinet is still high,
\nbut the Social-Democrats have done the math and want to preserve their regional
\ninfluence, which has won them so many elections. For that, they must do
\neverything in their power to block the two-round voting system, in a year when
\nthe election score is close and local and legislative elections can go either
\nway. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three months after taking office, the Liberal Government is facing its first censure motion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":84537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29314,39876,36660,29346,39877],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-84536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-censure-motion","tag-ludovic-orban-cabinet","tag-marcel-ciolacu","tag-social-democratic-party","tag-two-round-voting-system"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n