Radio România Internațional

Tag: Dancila Cabinet

  • The no-confidence motion rejected

    The no-confidence motion rejected

    The no-confidence motion initiated by the National Liberal Party and supported by the Save Romania Union and the People’s Movement Party blamed the government in particular for the severe deterioration of the country’s macro-economic climate. The increase in the Romanian Interbank Offer Rate (ROBOR), the index on the basis of which banks establish their interest rates, the accelerated inflation, the chaos created by the changes brought to the Fiscal Code, the lack of investment in infrastructure and the attempts to nationalize private pensions were the main accusations leveled by the Opposition.



    The signatories also claim that, just like with the previous two cabinets, headed by Sorin Grindeanu and Mihai Tudose, respectively, the Prime Minister is just a name, as the real leader and decision-maker is the president of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea.



    The Save Romania Union Senator Radu Mihail: “We are in a situation in which we have to debate a no-confidence motion against the third government, endorsed by Mr. Dragnea, because the Dancila cabinet is now a threat, through its ministers, to the private property of 7 million contributors to the second pillar of the pension fund. There is no guarantee that the Dancila cabinet will not lead the country into a situation in which there will be no money for pensions for the current employees. Since the beginning of the year, when you took over the office of prime-minister, all you have done was to sink the country’s economy into ruin, to generate panic and distrust, to chase away foreign investors and to accelerate the negative developments affecting Romanian economy.”



    In response, the Prime Minister said that the no-confidence motion was full of false statements, devoid of any rational arguments and therefore just a political game played by the right-wing opposition.



    Prime Minister Viorica Dancila: “I did not expect the motion to be just a long list of false statements, a presentation of an untrue reality, made in bad faith. All that the power is doing is bad, and everything you are doing is right. You refuse to admit even the most obvious things, good things that have happened during this governing period. The first misinformation, and the most serious of all, is that there is no money left for pensions, not to mention the so-called nationalization of the second pillar.”



    For the motion to pass, it should have been endorsed by 233 MPs. Only 166 voted “for”, and four “against”. During the vote, the MPs members of the majority stayed in, while the members of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians, which is not part of the Government, but is connected with the ruling majority by means of a parliamentary cooperation agreement, left the room.



    The Social Democrats have congratulated themselves for the results and have stressed the fact that the Government remaining in power will ensure Romania’s stability. The Liberals, on the other hand, have stated that the result of the vote is one that shows lack of responsibility to the future of the country. Voices in the extra-parliamentary opposition say that early legislative elections are needed, because, under the leadership of Liviu Dragnea, whose criminal record is getting thicker by the day, the current majority has lost its legitimacy.

  • No confidence motion in the Bucharest Parliament

    No confidence motion in the Bucharest Parliament

    Installed in January, harshly criticized by the media and the
    right-of-center opposition and constantly contested in the street by the civil
    society, the Government made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance
    of Liberals and Democrats and headed by the Social     Democrat
    Viorica Dancila, Wednesday took its first major test in Parliament. The
    no-confidence motion needed 233 votes in order to pass, but it failed with a
    vote of 166 to 4, while the Power MPs did not vote at all.


    Under the title Toppling
    the Dragnea-Dancila Cabinet, a national emergency!, the no-    confidence motion signed by 152 deputies and senators with the National Liberal
    Party, the Save Romania Union and the People’s Movement Party accused the
    Cabinet for the country’s worsening economic situation. The increase in the
    ROBOR index, based on which interest rates are calculated, the rapid rise in
    the inflation rate, the depreciation of the domestic currency against the euro,
    the chaos created by the changes to the Fiscal Code and the lack of investment
    in infrastructure were the main reasons put forward by the opposition. The
    rightist parties also argued that PM Viorica Dancila is only a marionette of
    the facto leader, Liviu Dragnea. The latter, they claimed, is trying to
    subordinate the judiciary and the state institutions.




    The Power has seen arithmetic work in its favour. The National Liberal
    Party, the Save Romania Union and the People’s Movement Party, in Opposition,
    have together only 154 votes as compared to the ruling coalition’s 249. The
    Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, numbering 30 MPs, is not part
    of the Government, but has in place a collaboration protocol with the ruling
    coalition. Parliament also has 17 MPs of the national minorities, who
    traditionally vote in favor of the Power, and also 15 non-affiliated MPs, most
    of whom are against Dragnea.

    All these figures made Dragnea voice confidence,
    last week, that the motion would not pass. Pundits said he was right and
    emphasised, not without irony, that Dragnea is in fact the only one able to
    topple a Social Democratic government. That was the case a year ago, when,
    having become undesirable for Liviu Dragnea, the then Social Democrat PM Sorin
    Grindeanu was dismissed through no-confidence vote, initiated and endorsed by
    the very party that put him in office, a premiere in almost three decades of
    Romanian post-communist democracy.

    Moreover, early this year, Grindeanu’s
    successor, Mihai Tudose, was convinced during a party meeting that took only
    several hours, to tender his resignation as PM. The media predicted that the Dancila
    Cabinet would survive the no-confidence motion.

    Nevertheless, journalists say,
    that won’t change the lack of credibility and the negative image of the ruling
    coalition controlled by Dragnea, particularly after last week the High Court of
    Cassation and Justice handed him a 42-month prison sentence for corruption. The
    sentence can be appealed. Let’s not forget that in 2016 Dragnea received a
    2-year suspended prison sentence for attempting to rig the elections.


    (Translated by E. Enache)