September 28 (SeeNews) - Romania's Constitutional Court on Tuesday ruled that a censure motion filed by the government's former coalition partner USR PLUS and opposition right-wing nationalist party AUR against prime minister Florin Citu must be debated and voted on in Parliament.
The Constitutional Court acknowledged the existence of a legal conflict between parliament and the government on the censure motion, but ruled that the motion must be debated in parliament, it said in a decision published on its website.
The ruling comes after the prime minister filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court regarding the existence of a legal conflict of a constitutional nature between parliament and the government, alleging an unconstitutional conduct, both unfair and abusive, towards the executive branch.
USR PLUS and AUR filed a censure motion against the government on September 3, after Citu dismissed justice minister Stelian Ion. Four days later all five USR PLUS ministers in Citu's coalition cabinet that also includes the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) resigned.
Following the Constitutional Court decision, Social Democrat Party (PSD) chairman Marcel Ciolacu announced that his party has submitted a separate censure motion against Citu and called on USR PLUS and AUR to back it.
In order to pass, the motion needs the support of at least 234 MPs in the 465-seat parliament. PNL and USR PLUS hold 134 and 80 seats, respectively, PSD has 157, AUR controls 43, while UDMR holds 29. The remaining seats are held by 18 MPs representing minorities, and 4 independents.
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