Former prime minister brought down by no-confidence motion, appeal before the decisive vote: “Negotiate until they fall under the table”

“There is still time to stop” the censure motion submitted against the Bolojan government, which will be put to a vote on Tuesday in the plenary session of the Legislature, considers the first prime minister after the Revolution to be dismissed by such a motion in Parliament.

“Politicians should negotiate until they fall under the table”, said the mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Emil Boc, in a press conference on Monday.

He says that the Romanian political and constitutional system faces two problems, the first being the motion of censure.

“Unlike other countries, where a governmental crisis does not occur before having a solution and there is a constructive motion of no confidence, in Romania there is a structural problem in the Constitution, in the sense that we generate a crisis without having a solution with what happens after”, said Emil Boc.

Comparison with Germany

“The censure motion cannot be turned into an instrument that shakes the stability of a country”, continued the mayor, according to Agerpres.

“Today, in Romania, we are demolishing without putting anything in place. In Germany, you cannot pass a no-confidence motion without having the name of the future prime minister and the governing program of the future government, and the country is moving forward and is stable. Citizens do not pay for the looting of politicians”, Emil Boc said.

According to the former prime minister during Traian Băsescu's presidency, there is no culture of political compromise, dialogue and negotiation in Romania.

“This is not written anywhere in the Constitution, you learn this culture of negotiation during the democratic rules. Who pays? Us”, said Boc.

So far, in post-December Romania, six governments have been dismissed by motion of no confidence.

The first motion of censure was adopted by the Romanian Parliament on October 13, 2009, against the government led by Emil Boc. Then, the censure motion entitled “11 against Romania”, initiated by PNL and UDMR and supported by PSD, received 254 votes for and 176 “against”.

The censure motion entitled “STOP the “Bolojan Plan” to destroy the economy, impoverish the population and fraudulently sell the state's wealth”, was signed by 254 parliamentarians, over the threshold of 233 votes needed to form a majority to dismiss the government.

The censure motion will be debated and voted on tomorrow, May 5.

PSD has 127 senators and deputies, and AUR has 90. The two parties still need 16 votes to pass the censure motion. The other opposition parties (SOS Romania, POT and PACE) gather 41 votes.

PNL, USR and UDMR, the parties that announced that they continue to support Ilie Bolojan, have only 164 MPs in Parliament out of the 233 required for a majority. The 17 deputies of the National Minorities are added to them. That would lead to a total of 181 votes, still insufficient to support Bolojan in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the UNIT Party parliamentarians said that, although they signed the censure motion initiated by the PSD and AUR, they will not vote on it on Tuesday at the debate in the plenary session of the Parliament. The announcement came as liberal first vice-president Ciprian Ciucu said the motion was “still being played” and the parties were having final discussions on Monday to prepare the vote on the motion.