President Klaus Iohannis deemed, on Thursday, as “incorrect” the attitude of Social Democratic Party (PSD) MPs to not participate in the sitting of the joint Chambers of Parliament for the vote to invest the Orban II Government and requested they reconsider their point of view.
“I don’t know if the calendar for early elections will be affected. I said from the beginning that it depends on all actors and we will see, yet let me speak a bit of the PSD’s attitude, which is at least strange, after the PSD submitted a censure motion, the Government was toppled, now they’re saying it’s not their fault. Not, it’s obviously the PSD, who submitted a motion, who managed to topple the Government and now, when a new proposal must be voted, they’re away on business. I find it incorrect from the point of view of principles and I take advantage of this occasion to invite them to reconsider their point of view. The Romanian Parliament is the supreme organism that represents the will of the people and work is done there by being present, not absent,” said the head of state before his participation in the extraordinary session of the European Council, in which the multi-annual financial framework is discussed for the 2021-2027 period.
The interim Chairman of the PSD, Marcel Ciolacu, said on Wednesday that Social Democratic parliamentarians will not participate on February 24 in Parliament’s joint plenary session in which the Orban II government is to be invested.
Prime Minister-designate Ludovic Orban said that, in the absence of a quorum at Parliament’s joint plenary session in which the Government is to be invested, the responsibility lies with the PSD, which “is boycotting a constitutional procedure”.
“We will see what will happen. On Monday, if no quorum is assembled, it will be the PSD’s fault, because PSD holds 42 percent of Parliament and it means boycotting a constitutional procedure. As such, the responsibility, if there is no quorum, lies exclusively with the PSD,” said Orban.
PSD: It’s the Prime Minister-designate’s duty to prove that he has the support of Parliament
The Social Democratic Party (PSD) says that it is the duty of the prime minister-designate to prove that he has the support of Parliament for the formation of the Government, and Ludovic Orban is trying in vain to blame the Social Democratic parliamentarians.
“It is the duty of the prime minister-designate to prove that he has Parliament’s support for the formation of the Government. Accustomed to the nonwork, Ludovic Orban tries in vain to blame the PSD parliamentarians for the failure of his early election game. The PSD came to the Cotroceni [Presidential Palace] consultations with a serious prime minister proposal, capable of coagulating a majority support in the Romanian Parliament,” PSD said in a Facebook post.
PSD MPs will be at work on Monday, but they will not be present at the “masquerade” staged by National Liberal Party (PNL), the Social Democrats said.
“As we said, we are waiting for the opinion of the Constitutional Court judges because we cannot be party to forcing the democratic and constitutional rules that President Iohannis and PNL practice,” they say.
