Here is the iron law of the ‘semi-presidential one’ – if your country appears frequently in the posts, then it is in trouble! This is the third Romania post in two weeks. This is not a good sign.
Yesterday, the government faced a no-confidence motion in the legislature and was defeated. This is the story.
Just over two weeks ago, the PNL and UDMR opposition lodged a no-confidence vote against the then PDL/PSD coalition that was easily defeated. A couple of days later the PDL PM, Emil Boc, sacked the PSD Interior Minister because of the latter’s comments about the upcoming presidential election and his fears that it would be rigged in favour of the incumbent PDL president, Traian Băsescu.
As soon as President Băsescu confirmed the dismissal, the PSD left the government. The President then reappointed Boc (the Boc II government) as a minority PDL government.
The PNL and UDMR then lodged a censure motion against the new government. The PSD announced that it would support the motion, though over time the UDMR appeared to equivocate. An appeal as the unconstitutionality of the censure motion was rejected by the Constitutional Court on Monday, leaving the way open for the censure vote yesterday.
The vote was heard in a plenary session of parliament. There are 471 deputies and senators. An absolute of 236 votes was needed. Bucharest Herald reports that the motion received 254 votes with 176 voting against. Therefore, the government fell.
Though there has been a little party shifting since (for example, 5 PNL deputies were excluded yesterday because they did not turn up for the censure motion), the distribution of seats in the Assembly after the 2008 election was as follows (Senate in brackets):
PDL: 115 seats (51)
PSD: 114 seats (49)
PNL: 65 seats (28)
UDMR: 22 seats (9)
Others: 18 seats
Total: 334 seats
According to the Constitution, the president must now propose a new PM for the parliament to approve. Apparently, he met all party groups yesterday, apart from the PSD who boycotted the meeting.
In terms of government formation, there seem to be various options. There could be a technocratic government that would run the country until after the presidential election in late November/early December. Alternatively, there could be a PNL/PSD coalition. This would instigate a period of cohabitation just ahead of the presidential election.
Currently, opinion polls are still showing that President Băsescu will win at the second ballot of the presidential election ahead of the PSD candidate. (See previous post). This is obviously why the PSD wants to put as much pressure on the president as possible in the six weeks before the first round.