December 20 (SeeNews) - A vote of no-confidence in Romania's coalition cabinet led by prime minister Viorica Dancila failed to win enough support from members of parliament on Thursday, official figures showed.
The censure motion was submitted by Romania's opposition National Liberal Party (PNL), Save Romania Union (USR) and Popular Movement Party (PMP), which accused the coalition government comprising left-wing Social Democratic Party (PSD) and centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) of poor performance.
The motion was approved by 161 members of parliament from PNL, USR and PMP, according to figures presented in a televised statement by the spokesman of the lower house of parliament. The two parties of the coalition government and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) ensured the necessary quorum but did not vote.
In order to pass, the motion needed to be backed by at least 233 members of parliament.
In mid-December, PSD lost four MPs who joined a party set up by former Social-Democrat MP and ex-prime minister Victor Ponta. As a result, the coalition government lost its majority in the lower chamber of parliament and thus became dependent on the votes of ethnic minorities. Now PSD and ALDE hold among themselves 164 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, while the rest of the parties plus representatives of minorities and unaffiliated MPs control 165 seats.
PSD leader Liviu Dragnea has said, however, said that the party has nothing to fear and that it will defeat the censure motion when it is put to the vote in parliament. Out of a total of 465 seats in the lower chamber and the Senate, PSD controls 216 and ALDE controls a further 31.
The previous vote of no-confidence in the government led by Dancila, in July, also failed to win enough support from MPs to pass.
The governmenr, which took office on January 29, is the third cabinet of PSD and ALDE since the December 2016 election.
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