No-confidence motion rejected in Parliament

Cîțu government survives no-confidence vote initiated by the Social Democratic Party in opposition.

Corina Cristea, 30.06.2021, 14:00

The
government led by the Liberal Florin Cîțu on Tuesday passed the test of its
first no-confidence motion, which was initiated by the main opposition party,
the Social Democratic Party, unhappy with the government’s measures in key
sectors and with the way in which the National Recovery and Resilience Plan was
devised. 234 votes were needed for the motion to pass, but only 201 MPs voted
in favour, from the Social Democratic Party and the ultranationalist Alliance
for the Union of Romanians. The MPs from the parties in the ruling coalition
attended the voting but abstained, as agreed within the coalition, which is
formed by the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union-PLUS Alliance and
the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.

Through
the measures adopted, the current government does not respect the right to
education and healthcare, ignores the constitutional provisions and promotes
economic policies that lead to a drop in living standards, said the Social
Democrats during the debates in Parliament. Their leader Marcel Ciolacu:

The
billions of euros that were loaned never reached the children, the pensioners,
the private sector. They reached the friends of your party. Nothing for the
Romanian people! Nothing for agriculture! Nothing for education and healthcare!
Nothing for the Romanian companies! Everything for yourselves! You have systematically
destroyed any last trace of trust in and credibility of the vaccination
campaign.

The Romanian
economy has overcome its biggest crisis in the last 100 years, and the
coalition is strong and ready to continue to govern, despite the fact that the
Social Democratic Party has boycotted in Parliament all the reforms initiated
by the government, said prime minister Florin Cîţu:

You caused
the Romanian people to panic unnecessarily! As you see, the economy is doing
very well. The inflation rate is lower than at any other time when Romania was
ruled by the Socialists, and so are the interest rates. The incomes of the
Romanian people are growing at a pace that is almost double the inflation rate.
Lower interest rates, incomes growing faster than the inflation rate – that’s a
lesson in economic for you. That’s how you increase spending power! And how you
create jobs.

The co-president
of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians George Simion also levied accusations
against the government. He said railway workers are unhappy with the lack of
vision for railway transport in Romania, and so are carriers and restaurant
owners who say they received no help, and neither did small producers, whose goods
don’t have access to hypermarkets, while prices have gone up and life is becoming
increasingly hard.

From
the other camp, Dan Barna, the deputy prime minister and co-president of the
Save Romania Union-PLUS Alliance, said: The no-confidence motion failed. The revolution
of good government goes on. Unlike the signatories of today’s exercise in hypocritical
demagoguery, we are trying to make this country a better place. The plan of
this government and this coalition is to implement long-term reforms, robust
reforms for Romania. (CM)