Romanian Parliament has new leaders
The new ruling coalition in Bucharest has started making changes at the top of Parliament.
Daniela Budu, 24.11.2021, 13:50
Romania has a new coalition government made up of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR). The new government makeup has prompted the change of Parliament s leadership, given that the balance of power in Parliament has also changed, less than a year after the parliamentary elections. Thus, the PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu was elected speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, while the Liberal leader Florin Citu became head of the Senate. Both will take over their new jobs on Friday, after the new government is sworn in. The election procedure in the Chamber of Deputies was simple, given that the position was vacant following the resignation of former Liberal leader Ludovic Orban. In his turn, Marcel Ciolacu was elected speaker of the Chamber of Deputies with 217 votes in favor and 77 against, and thus won this position over his contender Cristina Pruna from the Save Romania Union (USR).
Ciolacu has promised that, as speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, he will make sure that both social and economic measures for which PSD joined the coalition government will become reality as soon as possible and that the governing programme will have support in Parliament. Things were far more complicated in the Senate, where Anca Dragu from USR had to be revoked in order to appoint a new speaker. The move was grounded in a Constitutional Court ruling, according to which if the configuration of the parliamentary majority changes, then the speaker can be revoked, in the absence of political support. USR already announced they will challenge the revocation in Court.
In his turn, the Liberal leader Florin Citu who had 82 votes in favor and 25 against is now faced with problems from inside his party, due to the alliance with PSD. Former Liberal leader Ludovic Orban left the party after almost 30 years of membership, alongside a number of senators and deputies. Among them are former ministers Violeta Alexandru and Adrian Oros. The latter have voiced their disappointment at the direction that the party took and at the alliance with the Social Democrats. Moreover, the PNL leadership is criticized from within the party, by some members who say that the new government makeup does not favor PNL. On the other hand, Citu says he is open to dialogue and willing to accept the membership of former Liberals who did not attack the party and who support the Liberal principles.
By Thursday Romania should have a sworn in government led by the Liberal Nicolae Ciuca and structured on 20 ministries and two deputy prime ministers. The Liberals keep in place the same ministers at the Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Education and Energy ministries and receive another four ministries, while the Social Democrats have nine ministries, among which Finance, Defense, Economy and the Government s General Secretariat. UDMR also keep the ministries they had, namely Development, Environment and Sport.
The governing programme, submitted to Parliament on Tuesday, is based on principles like resilience, stability, transparency, equity and efficiency, according to the PM designate, who gives assurances that pensions, the minimum social allowance, the gross minimum salary and the child allowance will be raised. (EE)
