The cabinet facing another no confidence vote

Romania has known parliamentary democracy for more than two decades now, yet the opposition has only once managed to bring down the government through a no-confidence vote. That happened a year ago but it was useless. The same Emil Boc cabinet, whose loyalty towards the head of state Traian Basescu has never been denied, organized the 2009 presidential election.

The last no-confidence vote against the government, made up of the Liberal Democratic Party, the PDL, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, the UDMR and the National Union for Romania’s Progress, the UNPR fell through last summer, just a few votes away. MPs of the opposition, made up of the Social Democratic Party, the PSD, the National Liberal Party, the PNL and the Conservative Party, the PC, who signed the censure motion, are hopeful that at the October 27th voting session, they will obtain the cabinet’s resignation, all the more so as the latter seems to be the only one in Europe to lack a response to the world economic downturn.


The three parties believe that the current government must be removed, because it destroys the two pillars that support any free and thriving society: economy and the fundamental institutions of the rule of law.

If the cabinet made up of the PDL, the UDMR and the UNPR collapses, the opposition wants to set up a crisis government that can ensure social peace and hold early elections in 6 months’ time at the most. The PSD, the PC and the PNL want, among other things, that agreements with the IMF and the World Bank be renegotiated, that the government reconsider the 25% salary cut in the public sector and that pensions standing at below 1 000 lei should not be taxed. The PSD’s president, Victor Ponta has called on PDL MPs to show responsibility towards their voters and vote for the censure motion. Victor Ponta:


“I urge people to call on the Liberal Democratic Party to stop disrespecting them. If they are brave enough, I call on them to vote for the censure motion; if they have been blackmailed and bribed, then they should vote against it.”

For the president of the National Liberal Party Crin Antonescu, the motion is a response to the discontent voiced by most Romanians. That is why he believes its chances are increasing.


“We recall that it is not only us who call for the government’s resignation, not only the trade unions, but also an increasing number of Romanians. We have great hopes.”


The PDL, however, is showing confidence in the coalition’s solidity. Democrat Liberal vice-president Gheorghe Flutur:“The coalition is united and solidary and it will categorically reject this motion.”


The main governmental ally, the UDMR, is ruling out the prospect that one of its members might vote against their own government. Senator Verestoy Attila:


“We definitely cannot turn down any political invitation to a talk, but we make it clear from the start: we depart from a position where we are part of the governing coalition and can’t discuss the no-confidence vote against us.”


If the government ends up unharmed, the next day it will take responsibility for the education law and, in this situation, the Constitution allows the Opposition to introduce another censure motion.