Parliament in crisis on verge of crucial vote

Parliament remained in deadlock as the main bulk of Romania’s political parties have publicly refused to back President Traian Basescu’s choice for Prime Minister.

November 2009 - From the Print Edition

Parliament was holding hearings with the proposed members of the Government headed by former counsellor of central bank’s governor, Lucian Croitoru, as we went to press.
Croitoru had been designated by President Traian Basescu to form a new government after Emil Boc’s team was ousted following a vote of no confidence by Parliament.
After the hearings, the Parliament will vote for the new Government, restructured from 18 initial ministries to only 14.
Tourism, telecom, youth and sports and small and medium enterprises will no longer be distinct ministries and will be blended into the remaining institutions.
Six of the proposed ministers, members of the Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), are part of the team appointed at the beginning of 2009 and independent Catalin Predoiu has again been put forward as Minister of Justice.
Leaders of the opposition parties that make 70 per cent of the Parliament have announced they will not support Croitoru. Crin Antonescu, the president of the National Liberals (PNL), has proposed Mayor of Sibiu Klaus Johannis, a respected German politician with a clean image, to be the new Prime Minister.
The Social Democrats (PSD) under Mircea Geoana, the Union of Democratic Hungarians (UDMR) headed by Marko Bela and the national minorities have also supported Johannis. But Geoana has not committed to keeping Johannis as Prime Minister if he himself should win the Presidential elections.
If the Parliament rejects three requests for three different governments, the President has the right to dissolve the Legislative and call for early parliamentary elections. But the Parliament cannot be dissolved in the last six months of a President’s mandate.
The political crisis started in September when Prime Minister Emil Boc asked for the resignation of Minister of the Interior Social Democrat Dan Nica. The pretext was that crime had risen in 2009, since he headed the Ministry.
In reply, the PSD pulled out all its Ministers from Government and allowed the PD-L to lead alone.
Then the Liberals filed for a censure motion entitled ‘11 against Romania’ in the Parliament against the minority Government. The motion was also voted by the PSD MPs. It was the first time when the Romanian Parliament has dismissed a Government since 1990.
According to the Constitution, the President has the right to nominate as Prime Minister the person proposed by the party that has the largest number of MPs, which in this case is the PD-L.
Basescu has proposed an independent as Prime Minister who is not involved in politics and who has the reputation of a good economist. Croitoru has a four-year experience as Romania’s representative to the International Monetary Fund.