USL wants president Traian Băsescu to be suspended

The Liberal Social Union (USL) wants President Traian Băsescu to be suspended. The argument offered consists in the statements made by that head of state on Radio România Actualităţi regarding the lack of money to restore the rates of salary from 2010, whatever decision the Constitutional Court may take over this matter.

And to strengthen their argument, the opposition arguethat by this action they want to exempt most of the population from another year of suffering, without actually specifying which articles of the Constitution President Traian Băsescu violated.

The Opposition, which has 217 Parliament members, should convince at least 17 another Parliament members, unaffiliated or governing, in order to accumulate the 234 votes needed.

USL has decided to establish a political committee for drafting the request for the suspension of Traian Băsescu as head of state.

The application shall be submitted to the parliamentary groups, PSD and PNL, which are to examine it.

After that it will be passed.

The parliamentary groups will submit the request to the joint permanent offices of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies; they will ask for opinion of the Constitutional Court, after which the permanent offices establish a joint sitting of the parliament to discuss the USL initiative.

Monday, after the meeting of the USL management, Co-President Crin Antonescu argued that the reasons for starting this approach could be found in the years when Băsescu served as head of state and eroded the rule of law in Romania.

"Basically, the will and political action were unconstitutionally in the hands of one man.”
"That means a man who commands the government, that means a man who has built a false parliamentary majority that he commands, that means a man who no longer accepts even apparently to respect the independence of the judiciary", Crin Antonescu said.

The USL approach "has no legal basis"

“The USL decision to proceed with the suspension from office of the president is an irresponsible approach with zero chances of succeeding”, the PDL President, Premier Emil Boc said on Monday after the meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party, according to Agerpres.

"It is an irresponsible approach with zero chances of succeeding," Emil Boc highlighted, while commenting upon the USL decision to initiate proceedings to suspend President Traian Băsescu.

The PDL spokesman, deputy Sever Voinescu, said that the USL approach ha no legal basis since President Traian Băsescu only spoke about a reality, the lack of money.

Sever Voinescu does not believe that the suspension will have any chance of succeeding.
"If it reaches the vote in plenary, in order to suspend President Traian Băsescu there will be fewer votes than the number of USL parliament members. I think they should be afraid of what is happening in their own yard, where obviously they fled the land under their feet.”
"It is obvious to everyone that this approach has zero chance of succeeding and not only because the parliamentary arithmetic is perfectly visible, it's about its reason", Sever Voinescu said.

According to the Article 95 of the basic law, the president can be suspended only if he has committed serious crimes that infringe the Constitution.

If the suspension proposal is approved by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, then a referendum on the president's impeachment will be hold.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA student, MTTLC, Bucharest University