CC to give final ruling in conflict between Government and Parliament on Education law

The Constitution Court (CC) is expected to give a final ruling, today, in the matter of the Government’s taking responsibility on the Education law. The Court allows in practice for reinitiating the debates following the petition filed by the Speaker of the Senate, Mircea Geoana, who denounced the blocking of the law in legislative procedure so the Executive could take responsibility on it. Today’s Court ruling will be essential in setting the date for the no-confidence vote filed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) following the Cabinet’s taking responsibility on the Education law. At any rate, the fate of the no-confidence motion seems sealed even before the vote. Although Democrat-Liberals are not particularly pleased about the form of the law either, they will get mobilized to reject yet another motion, and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) is expected to vote against it as well, given that the law places the Hungarian minority at an advantage. Moreover, the very initiators of the motion, PSD and PNL, are not very optimistic about its chances of success. The president of PSD, Victor Ponta, stated yesterday that the motion had slim chances of passing, but that its main purpose was to launch as many signals as possible that the opposition opposes “the destruction of the Romanian education system”. In the meantime, Social-Democrats and Liberals continue to attend debates in the Senate on the education law, although the Democrat Liberal Party (PDL) abandoned talks. “Given that the Government has taken responsibility on the national education bill, and awaiting the Constitutional Court ruling, the Education panel ceased all activity on the bill,” the chairman of the panel, PDL senator Mihail Hardau, stated. Ponta and Geoana argue, however, that debates continue and that the law will be adopted next week by the upper chamber, in which case president Basescu will have to choose between the law which the Government vouchsafed for and the version of the law adopted by the Parliament.