June 21 (SeeNews) - The government of Romania's prime minister Sorin Grindeanu on Wednesday lost a no-confidence vote requested by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the leading partner in Romania's government coalition.
Only MPs from left-wing PSD and junior coalition partner, centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE), were present at the vote, aired live by Romanian broadcasters.
Of the 248 MPs present, 241 supported the no-confidence motion. In order to pass, it needed to be backed by 233 MPs.
The motion, which criticizes the government for failing to meet the targets of the governance programme, was read during an extraordinary session of parliament on Sunday attended only by MPs from PSD and ALDE.
The leaders of the other parties in parliament - right-wing National Liberal Party (PNL), centre-right Save Romania Union (USR), Popular Movement Party (PMP) and Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) - did not take part in the vote, arguing that the motion is a PSD intra-party affair in which they do not wish to be involved.
Following December 11 regular general elections, PSD won 221 of a total of 463 seats in the two houses of parliament in the election. After the vote, PSD joined forces with ALDE to secure a comfortable majority of 250 seats.
Grindeanu refused to step down last week after PSD's executive committee withdrew support for his six-month old coalition cabinet citing poor performance.
Also last week, Romania's president Klaus Iohannis said he will appoint a new prime minister only after the incumbent one resigns or loses a no-confidence vote in parliament. PSD and ALDE announced that they will propose a new candidate to the president on Monday.
Under Romania's constitution, the president must name a prime minister from the political party which has won majority of seats in parliament in elections. Both the prime minister and his cabinet must be approved by the MPs in a vote of confidence. The MPs can reject a proposed government line-up up to three times before the president decides to dissolve parliament and call new elections.
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