Senate passes no-confidence motion against labour minister

Romanian Senate passes simple no-confidence motion filed by the Social Democratic Party against labour minister Violeta Alexandru.

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Daniela Budu, 10.06.2020, 13:50

Parliament has seen a number of political
initiatives recently targeted against the Liberal minority government. After Parliament
passed a string of simple no-confidence motions against the ministers of
finance, agriculture, home affairs and education, the Senate on Tuesday adopted
a similar motion against the labour minister Violeta Aexandru, 76 yes votes and 28 no votes.

The initiator of the move, the Social Democratic
Party, criticised the minister saying the government order on furlough and the
measures to support vulnerable categories was badly drafted and had to be
changed several times. The minister also came under criticism for how she
reorganised the ministry and for how she handled the situation of the Romanian
workers abroad. The Social Democrats also said she didn’t have solutions for the
rise in pensions and children’s allowances and for the Romanians who have
returned from abroad. The Social Democrat senator Radu Oprea:

You did nothing to prevent the Romanians’
living standards from dropping by 10%. You don’t have a single project so that
the over 1 million Romanians who have returned since the start of the pandemic should
stay and work here.

The labour minister rejected the accusations
contained in the motion, which she described as full of lies and misconceptions
and an act of contempt against honest, hard-working people. She said that since
the beginning of the state of emergency checks were conducted at 4,000 places
of work resulting in fines of over 830,000 euros. She also said she had the utmost
respect for pensioners and that she would make sure that all applications for a
recalculation of the pension are solved.

Minister Alexandru also pointed out that when
she took over, the pensions authority was riddled with problems and people had
to wait a long time for their retirement orders to be issued:

You knew about these things and didn’t care. I’ve
worked enormously to reduce considerably the number of long overdue cases of applications
for retirement and for the recalculation of pensions.

As for the situation of Romanian workers abroad,
Violeta Alexandru said a bill was up for public consultation providing for safer
measures for the Romanian workers seeking employment abroad.

The minister’s activity also came under
criticism from senators from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, the
Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, as well as from the People’s Movement Party and Pro Romania party, all of whom
who demanded her resignation. The National Liberal Party and the Save Romania
Union voted against the motion. However, passing the motion does not imply the
minister will lose her job.