Prime Minister-designate Eugen Tomac now has 10 days to go to Parliament with the cabinet of ministers and the government program to ask for a vote of confidence. 233 is the number of votes he must get for inauguration.
For almost a month, since Prime Minister Bolojan was dismissed, formal and informal negotiations took place in Cotroceni for the formation of the new Government. President Nicușor Dan announced, on Thursday evening, a designated prime minister: Eugen Tomac.
If the name is known, the same does not happen when we talk about the parliamentary majority to invest this government.
How the calculations currently look
Eugen Tomac will have to negotiate one by one with all the parties in the Parliament, in order to coagulate the necessary majority.
He said, on Thursday evening, in Cotroceni, where he was with Nicușor Dan, at the time of the appointment announcement, that he would come with a team of specialists, “for a technical government, not a political one”, and asked for the support of democratic and pro-Western parties for the investiture of the future Executive.
At the moment, PSD has the most votes – 127 senators and deputies. AUR has 90 votes, PNL – 76, USR – 59, UDMR – 31, the National Minorities group -17.
Given that between PSD and PNL, respectively USR, there is no understanding after the break that led to the motion of censure that brought down the Bolojan government, the smaller groups in Parliament come into play:
- SOS Romania: 15 votes
- PACE – First Romania: 11 votes
- Unaffiliated MPs: 21 votes
What the parties say
The Social-Democrats are open to Tomac's proposal, but they will make a decision only after they see the government program proposal and the majority he will be able to collect, party sources told HotNews, before the announcement made Thursday evening by Nicușor Dan.
After the announcement from Cotroceni, Sorin Grindeanu said that the PSD is “open to talk with the designated prime minister Eugen Tomac in order to coagulate a parliamentary majority”, but that, first, his party wants to know two things from the prime minister proposed by the head of state.
“Romania and the Romanians need a Government, as quickly as possible! (…) PSD wants to know what is the vision of the appointed Prime Minister both about the governing program of his future executive team and the composition of this team,” Grindeanu said, in a message published on his Facebook page.
“Subsequently, the PSD leadership will submit to the internal discussion the conclusions of these consultations with the designated prime minister”, stated the president of the social democrats.
PNL and USR have repeatedly voted resolutions announcing that they will not vote with PSD for the investiture of another government, and if PSD is part of the coalition then they will go into opposition.
On Thursday evening, USR announced that it will talk with Prime Minister-designate Eugen Tomac.
“The formula that deserves USR's support is a government that includes USR ministers,” said USR president Dominic Fritz, shortly after President Nicușor Dan appointed Eugen Tomac as prime minister.
“Out of respect for the president and with responsibility for the country, we will talk to Prime Minister-designate Eugen Tomac, a respectable party president and MEP,” said Fritz in a press release.
PNL said, after the announcement from Cotroceni, that “next week it will seriously analyze the government program and the political formula that the designated prime minister will propose in the next period”. “At the same time, the National Liberal Party recalls the decision adopted by the party's leadership: PNL will not participate in the formation and will not be part of any government in which PSD is present, directly or indirectly,” the liberals declared, Thursday evening, in a press release.
George Simion, the leader of the second largest party in Parliament, announced on Thursday that AUR will not support the future government. After the announcement from Cotroceni, the president of the National Management Council of AUR, Petrișor Peiu, criticized the way in which president Nicușor Dan justified his decision to nominate Eugen Tomac.
“Today, the president inaugurated a period of danger for democracy, when he said that he had to appoint a technocrat government because “the parties did not understand each other”. This expression is full of immorality and portends a dictatorship. In a functioning democracy, governments are the result of parliamentary majorities, by no means the fruit of the will of a person, be it the president of the state”, declared Peiu.
At the end of the consultations that took place two weeks ago at the Cotroceni Palace between the president and the small groups in Parliament, it emerged that the vote of these parliamentarians is not guaranteed.
Some of them said they will vote for whatever the president proposes, others demand a “sanitary cordon against extremism” or say their vote depends on what the future Executive's government program will look like, and others invoke early elections to get out of the crisis.
The road to 233 votes
Without the 135 votes of the PNL and USR, and without the 90 of the AUR, the future Executive can gather a maximum of 223 votes, insufficient to invest the government.
The 233 votes can be gathered if at least 11 parliamentarians from these three parties do not respect the leadership's decision and vote for the government, and the PSD, UDMR, National Minorities, SOS, PACE group and all unaffiliated parliamentarians are present and vote for.
