December 12 (SeeNews) - The chairman of Romania's opposition National Liberal Party (PNL), Ludovic Orban, said that it is considering submitting a censure motion against the government due to its overall poor performance.
"PNL wants another government for Romania and believes this is the worst cabinet in Romania's history, and must be replaced as soon as possible by another one that has the capacity to exercise the presidency of the Council of the EU in the best way and to reap maximum benefits from this mission," Ludovic Orban said in a televised statement following a meeting of the party's decision-making executive committee on Tuesday evening.
The party has mandated the leaders of its groups in both chambers of parliament, together with the other opposition parties, to finalize the text of the censure motion and submit the motion this week, Orban added.
The government has been criticized by Romanian president Klaus Iohannis and by opposition parties for not being prepared to take over the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU on January 1, 2019.
Last week, the ruling Social Democratic Party (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 comprising left-wing PSD and centre-right Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE) 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 seats and ALDE controls a further 31.
PNL has 93 MPs, while the centre-right Save Romania Union and the Centre-right Popular Movement Party have 40 and 12 MPs, respectively. The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, which usually backs the PSD-ALDE government, has 30 seats. National minorities have 17 seats and independents hold 26 seats.
The censure motion must be debated in a plenary session of parliament within five days after it is submitted. A vote must be held within three days after that.
The previous no-confidence motion against the government, in July, failed to win the necessary support in parliament to pass.
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