USL wants Bi-cameral Parliament and mediator-president

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The opposition criticises the possible nomination of Crin Antonescu as chairman of the Committee in charge with revising the Constitution.

Clearly delimiting the attributions of the president, consolidating the role of the Parliament – fewer MPs, but still bi-cameral – and punishing the political migration with the loss of the mandate are just few of the principles agreed by USL for the revision of the Constitution. These guidelines were unveiled Tuesday evening by the president of PNL, Crin Antonescu, in a meeting called at the Parliament Palace to celebrate two years from the founding of the Union. “First, we see the Constitution not only as it happened in the past, in terms of the force, sovereignty and interests of the state. We see the Constitution (…) in terms of the rights, freedoms and interests of the citizen,” Antonescu said, quoted by Mediafax. The PNL leader insisted on the need to clearly delimit the attributions of the president, so he truly becomes an arbitrator. According to the Liberal, there is no reason for the president to interfere with the Executive or the Legislative, as he does nto need more power, but more authority and prestige. Antonescu added that, when revising the Constitution, one must clearly state that the head of the state must nominate the premier proposed by the Parliament majority, regardless if it is a party or a coalition. Speaking about the same subject, Premier Victor Ponta ironically said in a TV show that USL should better specifically provide in the new Constitution that the president cannot appoint “pigs or kittens” as prime ministers and the fundamental law should explicitly mention “the species from which prime ministers may be designated” (allusion to the fact that, before nominating the premier, during the electoral campaign, Traian Basescu said that he cannot “swallow pigs” and appoint as premier someone whom he considers as inappropriate, as he called Ponta a “kitten”).
On the other hand, Crin Antonescu mentioned that the government may take responsibility in Parliament over a draft law only once per parliamentary session. He added that USL opts for a Parliament with fewer members, but with a bi-cameral system, where the attributions of the two Houses are distinct, same as the way their members are elected.
He said that the revision of the Constitution will also refer to the administrative reform, the founding of regions and the administrative decentralisation.
As for the possibility of appointing him as chairman of the Committee that will revise the Constitution and the comments surrounding this idea, Antonescu said that the talk about him not being a lawyer is “a false issue,” because the revision of the fundamental law is “a political effort” rather than a notarial paper. The opposition however challenges this opinion. The former leader of PDL, Emil Boc claims that it is the first time in the history of amending the Constitution that the president of this committee “has nothing to do with the constitutional field.” In his turn, the president of PDL Cluj, Daniel Buda said that he does not understand why the premier wants to appoint Antonescu as chairman of the Constitution revision committee, “only if he wants to dig himself the hole he will fall in.”