The PSD plan regarding the Tomac government. What are the social democrats doing, while the PNL has clearly announced that it does not support it / Latest calculations
The PSD is waiting for the final list of ministers, as well as the government program, to be submitted to Parliament. Only then, say sources from the party, will Sorin Grindeanu convene the meeting in which it will be clearly decided whether the party supports Eugen Tomac or not. The social democrats set conditions.
The liberals decided today in a meeting, unanimously, that they do not support the Tomac government. Ilie Bolojan came out and officially explained the reasons. “From a political perspective, this proposal is a screen formula to relieve the PSD of the responsibility it has for the situation we have reached,” said Bolojan.
PSD's response came shortly after, in a message published on the party's Facebook page: “The sacked Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan is blocking all of Romania because he has lost power!”, reads the PSD message.
“Beyond the ambitions of a single man, Romanians urgently need a Government that will take the country out of the economic and social chaos in which Bolojan left it. It is possible without PNL! After 7 years in power, without winning the elections, it is time to go into opposition, next to AUR”, the PSD message also reads.
Ilie Bolojan is also the target of an attack again: “To continue to hypocritically lie that you accepted the position of prime minister because no one was flocking is a ridiculous attempt to rewrite reality.”
PSD, conditions for supporting the Tomac government
In parallel, say party sources, PSD has not yet announced its decision regarding Tomac's support. And that's because there are still ongoing negotiations. The social democrats are also waiting for the government program to ensure that the required measures are also in place.
More precisely, PSD requested, according to party sources:
- no new fees and taxes should be introduced
- to reduce VAT on food and medicine
- indexation of pensions from January 1
- minimum wage increase from July 1
- eliminating CASS for mothers, veterans and people with disabilities
- expanding reverse charge mechanisms in sectors with a high risk of tax evasion
- a “real” administrative reform
- “resuming economic stimulus”
After the government program is submitted to the Parliament, and the list of ministers is finalized, Sorin Grindeanu will call the meeting to vote whether or not the party supports Eugen Tomac.
And this is going to happen on Friday or Saturday night, sources say. Sunday is the last day when Tomac can make this move.
The PSD plan regarding the vote
Thus, social democratic sources say that the meeting may take place on Monday, even before the hearings of possible ministers begin.
In addition to these requirements, PSD does not want to be the only major party to support Tomac. In this scenario, the social democrats will say that each MP is free to vote as they wish.
While Tomac announces that he is willing to make any compromise, the parties do not seem to be convinced by his proposals. The PSD is hesitating, waiting for the list of ministers, the government program and they are determined not to be the only ones voting for the Prime Minister's Government.
Tomac continues to negotiate the support of the parliamentary parties in order to pass his Government, he even said that he is willing to make any necessary compromise, including changing the names of ministers who are not approved by the political leaders.
How the calculations look for Tomac
In order to be sworn in as prime minister, Tomac needs the vote of the majority of deputies and senators, i.e. 233 votes.
Without the votes of the PNL, USR, nor of the AUR, which announced that it would not support him, Eugen Tomac needs all the votes of the PSD, UDMR and the parliamentarians from the National Minorities, SOS, the PACE group, the UPR, as well as all the unaffiliated parliamentarians.
- PSD – 128 MPs
- GOLD – 90 MPs
- PNL – 76 parliamentarians
- USR – 59 MPs
- UDMR – 31 MPs.
- Minorities – 17 parliamentarians.
- United for Romania – 14 members
- The SOS Romania group – 15 members
- Unaffiliated – 15 deputies and 8 senators
- Pace-Intâi Romania Group – 11 senators
Without having a clearly defined majority, Tomac has stated several times that he does not intend to submit his mandate as Lucian Croitoru, Theodor Stolojan, Florin Cîțu, Dacian Cioloș, Nicolae Ciucă and Liviu Negoiță did in the past.
After calling for the responsibility of the parties in a press statement yesterday, Nicușor Dan called Ilie Bolojan and Sorin Grindeanu, but the positions of the two leaders seem to be unchanged.
If Tomac does not pass the Parliament's vote, the president is prepared to appoint a new technocrat prime minister.
