Romania’s president proposes new referendum

Romanian President Traian Basescu has threatened the Social Liberal majority in Bucharests parliament with another referendum.

Ştefan Stoica, 12.06.2013, 13:54

The lull on the Romanian political scene was broken on Tuesday evening by President Traian Basescu’s announcement that he plans to call a referendum on the introduction of a single-chamber Parliament and the reduction in the number of MPs to 300. The electorate answered positively to a referendum on the same issue held in 2009, also initiated by President Basescu. For this reason the head of state deems as unacceptable the intention of the Social Liberal parliamentary majority to revise the constitution without taking into account the will of the people, which was clearly expressed in 2009.

Ignoring the result of the referendum, the president says, is incompatible with the state of law. However, he doesn’t rule out the possibility for the Social Liberal Union to eventually consider people’s will, or face the prospect of the Constitutional Court invalidating their proposed revision of the constitution. This is why Traian Basescu made it clear that whether or not he calls for a new referendum depends on the developments in Parliament and the Constitutional Court.

Traian Basescu: “The revision of the Constitution has not been completed yet and there is always the possibility for Parliament to reconsider its attitude towards the Romanian people. It’s also possible for the Constitutional Court to reject a law on the revision of the constitution that ignores the outcome of a referendum.”

The criticism voiced by the president, which indirectly targeted the co-president of the Social Liberal Union and head of the committee for the revision of the constitution, the Liberal Crin Antonescu, made the latter say that the 2009 referendum, so strongly invoked by Traian Basescu has been nothing but an undemocratic trick, for it was held on the same day with the presidential elections. In Crin Antonescu’s opinion, Romanians were poorly informed on what a single-chamber parliament involves. As for President Basescu’s objections to the revision of the constitution, Crin Antonescu says Basescu’s only reason is that this is a project over which he doesn’t have any control.

Crin Antonescu: “I believe our top priority should be to strengthen and continue our projects, and not a polemic with Traian Basescu, who, in a way is only speaking to himself. We’re talking about a project here and this project, with or without Crin Antonescu or Victor Ponta is something that Traian Basescu simply cannot tolerate.”