Romanian government to face no-confidence vote

Romanias Social Democratic government is facing a no-confidence motion this week.

Ştefan Stoica, 07.10.2019, 13:55

The fate of the minority Social
Democratic cabinet is to be decided on Thursday, when a vote is held on a
no-confidence motion initiated by the opposition, who regard the collapse of
Viorica Dancila’s government as an essential condition for Romania’s going back
to normality. The public agenda has been dominated in the last two and a half
years by the problems with the law of certain individuals from the Social
Democratic Party, said the Liberal opposition MP Florin Citu, who read the
no-confidence motion in Parliament.

The motion reads that Romania is missing
opportunities every day the current government stays in power, including the
chance to develop using European funds and the opportunity to take advantage of
its economic growth and channel the surplus to building infrastructure,
regional hospitals and modern schools. We are losing our credibility internationally,
before our partners, we are missing the chance to keep our young people in the
country, the motion also reads. Florin Citu says it wasn’t competence that has informed
the appointments made to cabinet positions since the elections of 2016:

In two years and eight months, more
than 80 ministers have come and went, some of them of the poorest quality and
appointed not in order to improve the performance of the current government,
but to trade votes and interests within the main ruling party.

The favourite target of the
criticism made by the opposition, prime minister Viorica Dancila says she is
confident her cabinet will win the no-confidence vote. This is despite the fact
that some Social Democrat MPs are tempted to vote against their party after the
departure of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats from the ruling coalition.
The prime minister has urged MPs to show responsibility:

There are enough MPs, including
from other political parties, who realise that essentially, Romania’s stability
and the way in which we approach this motion is very important for Romania and
Romanians. Beyond the political fight, we must see further and I believe that’s
precisely what some political leaders haven’t learnt to do.

The no-confidence vote is taking
place this week, so intense negotiations are being held to bring the government
down. The motion was signed by 237 MPs from all parliamentary parties and
groups, including the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union, the
People’s Movement Party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania,
the group of ethnic minorities other than Hungarian, and even from the Social
Democratic Party. The leader of the National Liberal Party Ludovic Orban is
counting on 244 votes in Parliament in favour of the motion. To pass, the
motion needs 233 votes.

In the last almost three years, the
opposition has failed in all its attempts to bring down the Social Democratic government.
The only one to succeed was in fact the Social Democratic Party itself, at the
orders of its former authoritarian leader Liviu Dragnea, who is currently
serving prison time for corruption. That political gesture, which was unprecedented
in the country’s post-communist history, was motivated by the need to stifle
any sign of independence within the government.