The war in the Bucharest Council: Ciprian Ciucu called a new meeting today, but PSD and AUR announced that they would not participate

The meeting convened on Friday, starting at 10.00, by the mayor of Bucharest, Ciprian Ciucu, could be the fourth meeting without a quorum in the last month. Under what conditions can the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest be dissolved?

Contacted by HotNews, PSD and AUR general councilors condition their participation in today's meeting by asking the City Hall and the general mayor to draw up specialist reports for the projects initiated by them.

Daniel Băluță, the president of PSD Bucharest already announced on Thursday, on the organization's Facebook page, that the group of PSD councilors will not appear at the meeting.

Council activity is blocked

Without a quorum, the General Mayor, Ciprian Ciucu, cannot make his announced majority, because a general councilor position is vacant, following the death of Cezar Cobianu, from REPER, in January. The swearing in of the new councilor can only be done if the meeting takes place and there is a quorum. In addition, the activity of the General Council is blocked.

The PSD group initiated two projects – the transfer of several boulevards from the Capital City Hall to the Sector 4 City Hall and the one that provides that Bucharest residents pay for hot water only if it is supplied at the temperature specified in the contract.

AUR councilors have two other projects – the expropriation of the 12 ha retroceded in the IOR Park and the City Hall's commitment to pay the payment obligations owed to disabled adults on time.

At least at the official level, the dissatisfaction of the two political groups is that the City Hall of the Capital did not draft the specialized reports for these projects, so that they could be put on the agenda and legally approved.

When the General Council can be dissolved

However, the situation cannot continue, because, according to the Administrative Code, the unmotivated absence from 3 consecutive ordinary meetings leads to the termination of the mandate of the local councilor, before the deadline.

For now, the councilors of AUR and PSD have been absent twice and those from PNL, USR, PMP, FD once.

Also according to the Administrative Code, the local Council is dissolved by law or by local referendum. The local council is legally dissolved in the following situations:

• if it does not meet at least in an ordinary or extraordinary meeting, for the duration of four consecutive calendar months, although it was convened according to the legal provisions;
• if it did not adopt any decision in 3 ordinary or extraordinary meetings held during four consecutive calendar months;

“The mayor, vice-mayor, general secretary of the administrative-territorial unit/subdivision, the prefect or any other interested person notify the administrative litigation court regarding the cases provided for in paragraph (1). The court analyzes the factual situation and pronounces on the dissolution of the local council. The court's decision is final and is communicated to the prefect,” the law also states.

The meeting on March 6 would be the fourth without a quorum.

How PSD councilors justify the absence

Contacted by HotNews, Hazem Kansou, the group leader of the PSD councilors, cites the lack of specialist reports on the projects submitted by his party.

“We are not coming because we have not received the specialist reports for the submitted projects. If they happen to appear by the time of the meeting, but I don't think so, we are coming. It is about the heating project and the one aimed at the transfer of the boulevards. The reports can be negative, with observations, with discussions, but they did not give us any kind of report,” said Hazem Kansou.

He says that next week the REPER councilor, the next elected on the party lists, could be validated and the absence from the meetings is not aimed at preventing the formation of a majority.

“It is the right of the councilor to be validated, if there will not be a quorum tomorrow (not today), it will certainly be next week, we will not play this game, so that there will not be a majority. Even so, Mr. Ciucu will not have a majority”, says the PSD councilor.

Daniel Băluță calls Ciprian Ciucu “baron”.

Daniel Băluță, president of the PSD Bucharest, also announced on the organization's Facebook page that the local elected officials from the PSD will be absent on Friday and launched a new attack on the mayor Ciprian Ciucu.

“Not even after a month, the general mayor and his apparatus have not fulfilled their legal obligations, namely those to draft, within 3 days, as provided for in the Administrative Code, the specialized reports, wanting with all their heart to perpetuate the robbery, mockery and humiliation to which the hundreds of thousands of people who received hard water and had their radiators frozen this winter are subjected. For Baron Ciucu and his army of kamikaze drones, however, don't matter. They want money at any price. There is no honor, and in such conditions I assure the people of Bucharest that we will use all the necessary means to do justice, so that people will not pay for what they did not receive,” said Băluță.

What the AUR elected from Bucharest say

The AUR advisers cite the same reasons.

“We will not participate in the meeting because the 5 points that we requested from the general mayor and the councilors were not met and if there was not even an opening for them to be solved, it means that these problems are not wanted to be solved. Let's just go to make a note of presence, we don't want to,” Ștefan Oprea, the leader of the AUR councilors, told HotNews.

USR accuses the political game, “of which we are not a part”

Contacted by HotNews, Cosmin Smighelschi, the group leader from USR, accuses political games.

“We support the majority penciled by the general mayor, Ciprian Ciucu, we want the General Council meetings to be held, because we have a lot of projects on the order of the General Council tomorrow (no today), which are related to emergencies in the city and we would be very sorry if there was not a majority for the second time in a meeting called by the general mayor. In our opinion, it is a political game of negotiation with the general mayor, of which we are not part, and we would want us to have negotiations in an extended coalition, as we have done so far, on the Capital's budget, to support the investment projects that are at risk of being blocked”, Smighelschi explained.

He says that the PSD and AUR councilors' abscesses are aimed at preventing the formation of a majority to support the general mayor.

“It is clearly a trick used, due to the death of one of the councilors from REPER, namely the fact that the oath of the new colleague is not put on the agenda, we do not manage to have the number required for the majority. Not having 28 councilors, we are in this political deadlock, we do not have a quorum and we cannot make a majority”, Smighelschi explained.

We tried to get a point of view from Andrei Badiu, the PNL group leader, but he could not be contacted.

What projects are on the agenda

The most important projects on the agenda are:

• purchase of an external audit at STB and Termoenergetica;
• the transfer of the Expo Arte Cultural Center activity to ARCUB;
• expropriations for the Green Promenade;
• extending leases and updating affordable housing prices;
• regulation of the use of pyrotechnic materials in Bucharest.

Where the blockage occurred

In January, Cezar Cobianu, general advisor from REPER, died, and on January 29, the General Council adopted a decision terminating his mandate and vacating the position. At the next meeting, a new adviser from REPER, Georgiana Diță, had to be validated. The majority in the General Council depends on its validation.

Thus began the deadlock. PNL, USR, REPER, PMP and Forța Dreptei together have 27 advisers. PSD, AUR and PUSL all have 27. If Georgiana Didiță from REPER took the oath, then PNL, USR, REPER, PMP and Forța Dreptei had 28 councilors – the majority announced by mayor Ciprian Ciucu.

In February, 4 General Council meetings were scheduled, but 3 were not held because there was no quorum, AUR and PSD were absent from the meetings convened by Mayor Ciucu, and the opposition was absent from those convened by PSD councilors. At the only CGMB meeting that took place, on February 17, there was a quorum, but the project was not put on the agenda.

For a quorum to exist, 28 councilors are needed, but at the moment each side only has 27 councillors, so General Council meetings cannot take place unless an agreement is reached.

A new meeting called by the PSD on March 10

The group of PSD councilors convened a new meeting of the General Council on March 10. For now, there are only two projects on the agenda, the one with the gigacalorie and the one with the transfer of the boulevards from the Capital City Hall to Sector 4.

Daniel Băluță says, however, that he will also introduce projects that are on the agenda of the meeting convened by mayor Ciprian Ciucu. Less the audit requested by Ciucu at the STB and the swearing-in of the general counsel from Reper, on the vacant post.

“As a responsible political force, the Social Democratic Party will introduce on the agenda of the extraordinary meeting of the CGMB on Tuesday, March 10 this year, convened by the general councilors of the PSD and PUSL, all the projects necessary for the functioning of the Bucharest City Hall, along with those it has already submitted”, announced Băluță.

Meanwhile, REPER has officially notified the Institution of the Prefect of the Municipality of Bucharest to unblock the situation and ensure Georgiana Diță takes the oath.

“PSD, AUR and PUSL have decided to block the administration of the Capital. They have a clear strategy of political sabotage in the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest. For weeks, this alliance refuses to leave on the agenda the swearing-in of general councilor by our colleague, Georgiana Diță. They were even absent from the meeting convened on February 26, to prevent the formation of the quorum.

In the absence of a quorum, meetings cannot take place. Therefore, the proposed decisions are no longer discussed and voted on. And without these decisions, there are no investments, reforms or solutions for the Capital's problems.

There is only one stake: maintaining a fragile balance of power that allows PSD-AUR to control the Council's agenda”, wrote REPER Bucharest on its Facebook page on February 26.