Amendment of Constitution with "the impeachment referendum”

President Băsescu declared in front of the assembled plenum of the Parliament that the emendation of the Constitution should be put to the vote concomitantly with the referendum on his dismissal.

The President suggested the restructuring of the Parliament so that there might be only one chamber of 300 members.

At the same time, the President stated that the USL procedures to remove him from office mask 4 problems, 3 of them being of prime importance and one being secondary.

The first major problem that the President pointed out refers to the attempts of ULS to subject the Justice to partisan interests. The President added that attempts were being made to subject the institutions of the state.

The President also accused the leaderships of PSD and PNL of not enacting the result of the 2009 referendum on the reduction of the number of the members of the Parliament.

The secondary aspect pointed out by the President is the fact that the USL representatives would like to cover up the scandal caused by the plagiarism allegations brought against the vice president.

The President said that Friday he would give a real answer to every accusation brought against him by USL in the petition for his dismissal at the debate of the document.

The President said that he had received the petition tardily and that he didn’t have time to answer to all of the allegations.

The President has also accused USL of being openly stubborn to dissolve the institutions of the state in the approximately 50 days since it has taken over.

The President ” hasn’t been truthful to the people”

Crin Antonescu, the leader of PNL, stated immediately after the President’s speech that the latter hadn’t communicated anything new, and that he believed that the President wasn’t truthful to the people .

” I believe that we haven’t heard anything new, neither in the petition for his dismissal, which was forwarded by 154 members of the Parliament, including me, nor in the speech of the President.

" These points of view have been known to us for a long time, they have been systematized, recapped, if you will. ” Crin Antonescu said.

He also commented on the President’s proposal to hold a common referendum for both the emendation of the Constitution and the dismissal of the President.

” What we have here is the same attempt by the President to link and condition the two distinct topics. ”

The PNL leader also stated that to him it was obvious that this procedure was an attempt to avoid the initial topic of discussion.

Translated by Vlad Nichita

MTTLC, Bucharest University