October 13 (SeeNews) - Romania's minority government, led by Prime Minister Emil Boc, on Tuesday lost a no-confidence vote sought by the opposition over its performance.
The two chambers of parliament supported the motion by a 254-176 vote in a joint session. Four votes were invalid, while the rest of the 471 lawmakers either did not vote or were not present at the session. The motion needed 236 votes to pass.
According to Romania's Constitution, President Traian Basescu must nominate a new prime minister, whose cabinet will have to win the approval of the parliament. Basescu will make a statement at 16.30 local time.
The no-confidence motion was submitted last week by opposition National Liberal Party, PNL, and the Democratic Union of the Hungarians in Romania, UDMR, over the government's overall performance. It is the first time that a government is toppled by parliament following a no-confidence vote in Romania, since the fall of comunism in 1989.
Boc’s cabinet, which took office last December, collapsed two weeks ago after the Social Democratic Party, PSD, left the coalition following the dismissal of a minister. Boc then set up an interim government made up only of members of his Democrat-Liberal Party, PD-L.
One of the cabinet's main priorities was the implementation of a reform package prescribed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a 20 billion euro ($29.6 billion) agreement which Romania signed in March. The package includes restructuring of the public sector, a new unified wage scheme and overhauling of the education system and aims to cut government spending in view of Romania's widening budget deficit.
PD-L, led by Boc, controls 170 seats in the parliament, while PSD has 162. PNL and UDMR control 88 and 31 seats, respectively.
Romania will hold Presidential elections on November 22.
($ = 0.6746 euro)