February 8, 2017 UPDATE

The first censure motion filed by the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union against the sitting coalition Government made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats was rejected by the Romanian Parliament

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Newsroom, 08.02.2017, 19:56

CENSURE MOTION – The first censure motion filed by the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union, in opposition, against the sitting coalition Government made up of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), was rejected by the Romanian Parliament in a plenary session held on Wednesday. 161 yeas and 8 nays were registered. At least 233 votes were needed for the motion to be adopted. PSD, ALDE and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania abstained from voting. The motion titled the Grindeanu Government-Government of national defiance. Do not legalise theft in Romania was tabled last week and read out on Monday, in a plenary session of Parliament. The initiators of the motion called on the Social Democratic Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu to assume responsibility for the error of adopting the emergency decree amending the Criminal Codes and of drawing up a pardon bill. Also, the signatories to the motion called on the cabinet to resign, accusing it of having committed institutional abuse. We recall that the adoption of the emergency decree amending the criminal law, later repealed, triggered wide-scale protests across Romania and among the Romanian communities living abroad.

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT – Romanias Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled there is no legal constitutional conflict between the state powers following the adoption by the Government of an emergency decree amending the Criminal Codes. The Court drew that conclusion after having discussed the requests made by the countrys president, Klaus Iohannis, and the head of the Higher Council of Magistracy, Mariana Ghena. Earlier, the Government had rescinded the emergency decree and had announced it temporarily abandoned the idea of amending the Criminal Codes. On Tuesday, President Iohannis attended a plenary session of Parliament, calling on the left wing Government to come up with solutions to the crisis it generated by adopting the emergency decree amending the Criminal Codes.

PROTESTS – Protests against the Government continued in Bucharest and other cities across the country, for the ninth day in a row, against the backdrop of changes being brought to the criminal law. The protesters, who gathered in a lower number than in the previous days, called for the resignation of the left-wing Government. The largest number of protesters was registered on Sunday, when half a million people protested in Bucharest and other big cities across the country and abroad, against an emergency decree amending the Criminal Codes, even though the emergency decree had been rescinded earlier on that day. Also on Wednesday, President Klaus Iohannis tried to start a dialogue with the protesters calling for his resignation in front of the Cotroceni Palace. It is for the fourth day that people gather near the offices of the Presidential Administration to back the Grindeanu Government.

EXCLUSION – The Department for Judges with the Higher Council of Magistracy, CSM, on Wednesday decided to exclude judge Camelia Bogdan from magistracy. Camelia Bogdan is the judge who, back in 2014, sentenced tycoon Dan Voiculescu to 10 years in prison in the case of the fraudulent privatisation of the Food Research Institute (ICA) in Bucharest. CSMs ruling is not final and can be appealed at the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Judge Camelia Bogdan is accused of committing the disciplinary offence of violating the legal provisions on incompatibilities and interdictions regarding judges and prosecutors. She was accused of attending a specialisation course in Romania, sponsored by the Agriculture Ministry, which was a damaged party in the ICA case, at the time.

JOINT DRILLS – The 500 US ground troops to be deployed in Europe, who left Poland on Monday, heading for Romania, are being stationed these days at the Mihail Kogalniceanu air base in Constanta county, in the south-east of Romania, a communiqué issued by the Romanian Defence Ministry shows. The American soldiers of the Fighting Eagles Battalion 1 will participate in joint drills alongside Romanian soldiers, as part of the US commitment to ensure the security of NATOs eastern flank, a component of the Atlantic Resolve Operation.

QUAKE – An earthquake measuring 5 degrees on Richters scale rocked Romania at 17:08:20 local time, on Wednesday, according to the National Institute for Earth Physics. The tremor, with the epicentre in Buzau County, eastern Romania, was felt in Bucharest, too. This is the second quake registered on the same day, after a first tremor measuring 4.2 degrees, with the epicentre in Vrancea County, in the east, rocked Romania at 11:52:06. The quake registered on Wednesday at 5.08 PM is the most powerful this year.

WEATHER – It is getting colder in Romania, particularly in the south-eastern half of the country. It will snow lightly in the south, south-east and the mountains. Rain and sleet are reported in the west and the centre. Gale force wind is reported, in places, in the south and south-east and on mountain crests. The highs will range between minus 8 and plus 7 degrees Celsius. (Translated by D. Vijeu)