Cioloș cabinet failed to get Romanian parliament confidence vote

Out of the 234 votes needed to become Romania’s next PM, Ciolos only managed to get 88, writes Cristian Gherasim, Bucharest correspondent.

The vote comes one week after the Romanian president designated Dacian Ciolos to form a new government and get behind him the support of the Romanian Parliament.

Many analysis regarded the nomination as a political ploy since Ciolos’ USR party only had 80 votes and other parliamentary parties declared that they will not support Dacian Ciolos as the next PM.

Romania was left without a government following a vote of no confidence at the beginning of the month. The cabinet, led by Florin Cîţu which is now interim PM, faced the largest coalition ever created against an incumbent government. It was toppled  by the largest number of votes ever recorded in Romania for such a motion.

The political debacle unfolded once Ciolos’ USR party, a reformist party running on a pro-European and anti-corruption platform, cried foul when it's justice minister was swiftly sacked by prime minister Florin Cîţu, of the National Liberal Party (PNL). USR then called for Cîţu to resign, calling the dismissal of the justice minister "abusive and groundless" and that the prime minister's €10bn investment plan was merely an attempt to buy local political support. With the PM refusing to resign, USR PLUS, together with the help of the right-wing populist and nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) initiated a motion of no confidence. This prompted Cîţu and his backers to try to block the procedure - by claiming the signatures gathered were fake, and complaining to Brussels that that "the alliance between USR-PLUS and AUR creates the premise for bringing a neo-fascist party to power".

According to the Romanian constitution, the president had to consult parliamentary parties on appointing a new prime minister. Meanwhile, Cîţu remained as interim PM for the next 45 days. Ciolos had to ask within 10 days from the appointment, a parliamentary vote of confidence.

Just 10 days before being designated to form a new government Cioloș said he was not interested in the job: "I was prime minister, but now I'm not concerned about this position. I have responsibilities in the European Parliament, I have a mandate there".

Now the Romanian president is left with picking a new PM to form a cabinet. If this too fails to receive the required votes, the president can dissolve the parliament and call for snap elections.

Even though the likelihood of this happening is low, and regardless  of the outcome, this political gridlock is hampering the authorities' ability to fight the coronavirus, as well as rising gas and electricity prices, plus a gaping public deficit.

Now, the president has called for parties to reconvene over consultations tomorrow morning to try to form a new government.

Meanwhile, COVID is ravaging Romania. Yesterday, in Romania died as many people as in the entire EU due to COVID. And the 4^th wave is far from over. Hospitals are on the verge of collapse due to the large number of COVID patients, and ICUs can’t cope to handle the seriously ill.

Share this article: