A 4th simple motion of no confidence was debated and voted on Tuesday in Bucharest, this time against the interior minister Marcel Vela. The main opposition party PSD initiated the motion, accusing the interior minister Vela of incompetence and lack of consistency in managing the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as the interior ministry issued several military decrees during the two months of state of emergency, which imposed lots of restrictions that were subsequently cancelled.
Minister Marcel Vela has also been criticized for having delayed the submission of the draft law regulating the state of alert, which, according to the Social Democrats, caused a 3-day legislative void. The PSD officials claim that the structures coordinated by the interior minister minimized the risk of the pandemic, did not focus on purchasing protective equipment for the medical staff and COVID-19 tests. Also the Strategic Communication Group is accused of having deliberately distorted the reality about the health crisis. The motion of no confidence shows that the fundamental rights of the Romanian citizens have been strongly affected by bad regulations, illegal fines and the excessive, authoritarian actions of minister Vela.
In reply, the interior minister has stated that all the measures taken during the pandemic, although restrictive, have been correct and aimed at protecting the population’s health. Minister Vela has recalled that this war against COVID-19 has put mankind, including the World Health Organisation, in an unprecedented situation for which they were not prepared. The interior minister explained that decisions had to be made in a matter of seconds most of the time, so as to protect people’s health. He argued that the decisions were based on technical and scientific analyses, and even if some measures were exceptional, they were meant to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. And the results have proved that the measures were correct, minister Vela added. He went on to say that Romania had the same start as Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and Great Britain, countries that have reported more deaths and contaminations than Romania, adding that any measure than can reduce the number of infected people and deaths, and can increase the number of recovered patients is a gain for everybody.
Minister Vela has also said that the virus does not discriminate between the right and left sides of the political spectrum, and has warned the opposition not to use this difficult period to start an electoral battle of accusations. The motion, which simply draws a warning signal, was passed with 65 votes for, 25 against and 5 abstentions. (translation by Lacramioara Simion)
