June 12 (SeeNews) - Romania's opposition right-wing National Liberal Party (PNL) said on Wednesday it submitted a censure motion against the coalition government led by prime minister Viorica Dancila.
The censure motion calls for the ousting of the government comprising left-wing Social Democrat Party (PSD) and centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE), because of repeated attempts to change justice bills and because it has endangered the Romanian economy through faulty fiscal policies.
"Today's motion is the result of the popular motion which Romanians filed through their overwhelming anti-corruption vote in the justice referendum and European Parliament elections," Raluca Turcan, leader of the PNL's group in parliament, said in a televised statement.
PNL won some 27% of the votes for members of the European Parliament (EP) last month, defeating PSD and ALDE. In addition, over 81% of Romanians who voted in an anti-corruption referendum held alongside the EP elections rejected the attempts of PSD to weaken the fight against graft.
The censure motion was signed by 173 MPs - from PNL, centre-right USR and centre-right Popular Movement Party (PMP) and Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), Turcan added.
Pro Romania, the party of former prime minister Victor Ponta, said it will vote in favour of the motion, but was not willing to sign it.
PSD said it will ensure the quorum for the vote but its representatives in parliament will not vote.
In order to pass, the motion needs to be approved by 233 MPs.
According to local media reports, negotiations between opposition parties and PSD-ALDE and other MPs are ongoing, but the opposition still needs to secure the support of some19 MPs.
The PSD-ALDE government coalition has majority in the 465-seat parliament, holding 208 and 31 seats, respectively. PNL has 93 MPs, USR holds 40 and PMP has 17 MPs. The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) holds 30 seats. Pro Romania has 24 seats.
The remaining seats are occupied by 17 MPs representing minorities, and by 5 independent MPs.
The censure motion must be debated in a plenary session of parliament within five days after it was submitted. A vote must be held within three days afterwards.
According to Turcan, the motion will be read in Parliament later on Wednesday and then debated and voted upon on June 18.
The cabinet led by Dancila took office on January 29. It is the third government of PSD and ALDE since the December 2016 election.
The last censure motion filed by opposition parties in December failed to gather the necessary number of votes to pass.
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