Romania Political Briefing: Failed Attempt to Dismiss the Government by a No-Confidence Motion in the Midst of the Local Elections Campaign Oana Cristina Popovici

ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 32, No. 1 (RO)

September 2020

Romania political briefing: Failed attempt to dismiss the Government by a no-confidence motion in the midst of the local elections campaign Oana Cristina Popovici

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Failed attempt to dismiss the Government by a no-confidence motion in the midst of the local elections campaign

The Social-Democrat Party (SDP), which is the major party in opposition, submitted a no-confidence motion for the dismissal of the Government in an extraordinary meeting in the Parliament during the holiday. The attempt, which would have otherwise created a political crisis, have failed following the lack of quorum. During this month, the parties are involved in the battle for the local elections which will take place on the 27th of September, under the restrictions imposed by the state of alert for containing the spread of the Covid-19.

The major event in the last period in the political arena was the submission of a no- confidence motion initiated by SDP against the National Liberal Party (NLP) Government, which required an extraordinary session of the members of the Parliament (MPs) during the holiday, in which the no-confidence motion to be presented. It was an important stake for SDP to dismiss the Government in the middle of the election campaign, but this could also have driven to the emergence of a new political crisis. If SDP were to be successful, the Liberals would have lost control of the Government in the midst of the electoral battle, while SDP image would have improved. The party is still confronting the doubts of the voters after the fail in the European Parliament elections in 2019 and the actions against the rule of law in the last years. In the last period, SDP also confronted with a high number of mayors changing the party and affiliating to the group considered to have the highest chances to win, namely the governing party. Although such a transit from one party to the other is discouraged, especially in the midst of elections, no measures were enhanced yet.

The main accusation towards the Government in the no-confidence motion was that Government officials violated all rules imposed on citizens following the new coronavirus pandemic, by participating in meetings or other gatherings without respecting the social distancing rules. The document also mentioned contradictory restrictions imposed on Romanian citizens, and an improper use of the money in the state budget, invoking a recent report of the Court of Accounts on public expenditures during the state of emergency. SDP also stated that the standard of living of the population was severely affected by lowering wages which led to poverty.

The no-confidence motion was seen as an attempt for destabilizing the political situation as it was the first time in the last 30 years when such an action was initiated during the parliamentary vacation. So far, all the censure motions have been submitted during parliamentary sessions, according to the Prime Minister Orban. In this respect, the Government asked for a clarification from the Constitutional Court, but the institution has not yet provided an answer. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban rejected the accusations in the SDP motion, denouncing manipulation of data or improper use of statistical figures. He argued that the number of employees is currently higher than on January 1, 2020, and the average net salary in June 2020 was 5% higher than in June 2019 when PSD was ruling, during times of favorable economic situation, without the threat of the pandemic and economic crisis.

Even before the launch of the no-confidence motion, there were fears that SDP did not have the necessary number of votes to dismiss the Orban Government, although they were supported by two other parties, Pro Romania and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE). Besides three of the SDP members of the Parliament that transferred to the NLP in the week before the motion, there were intense negotiations between NLP and the MPs in opposition. Despite the threatening that SDP’s MPs will be penalized by exclusion from the party in case of absenteeism from the Parliament in the day the motion had to be voted, SDP failed to gather the necessary number of votes. There were only 226 MPs that attended the extraordinary meeting instead of 233 needed for a quorum.

The SDP leader, Marcel Ciolacu, declared that SDP consider filing a second motion of censure if the circumstances are favourable in the future. Analysts considers that this fail is a signal that SDP is going to lose both the local and the general elections, and to become the third political force after NLP and USR. The process of transferring mayors from SDP to NLP will be therefore accentuated and will have important consequences in local elections. Such transfers from a party to the other among local mayors are justified by their high dependency on the money from the Government. Those in the group of winners have chances to be better financed and their route in the midst of elections could be an indicator of the party that is most likely to govern.

At present, SDP is confronted with the lowest percentage of voting intentions in the last seven months, reaching 20.8%, according to a poll which took place during August. In January, SDP gathered 20.6% of voting intentions. NLP is on the first place of the voters’ intentions for the places in Parliament, with a percentage of 33.6%. The third place in the political hierarchy belongs to the party Union Save Romania (USR), with 18.3% of the options, in a slight increase

2 compared to July, while Pro Romania is slightly exceeding the threshold of 10%. The rest of the parties have less than 10% of voting intentions.

There were fears that if the Executive was dismissed, a decision vacuum could have been reached, and a few hours before the vote of the censure motion, president Klaus Iohannis accused SDP of generating chaos. As in Romania, the number of Covid-19 infections was increasing during summer and the trend is continuing, such a situation would have had damaging effects in the society. It is clear that parties are using all the potential measures to ensure the highest slice of the pie at the local elections taking place at the end of September and the following ones for the Parliament intended for December.

Almost a week before the no-censure motion, SDP, which remains Romania’s biggest opposition party, has organised an online congress for electing its new leadership. The meeting was postponed several times due to the pandemic and the party finally decided to go mostly online, due to restrictions on public meetings. The internal elections had no stake, as only two candidacies were submitted in the race for the position of president. One of them was that of the interim SDP president, Marcel Ciolacu, the actual president of the Chamber of Deputies in the Parliament, who hold this position in the previous nine months. There were no doubts that he was going to be appointed as president and he was indeed elected with a full mandate with over 1300 votes, as compared to only 91 for his opponent. However, his success was partially shaded in the context in which the no-censure motion and the removal of the Government was at a standstill, following NLP negotiations with the social-democrat MPs. Analysts consider that a success of the no-confidence motion would have legitimized Marcel Ciolacu at the head of the party, but the loss of votes in Parliament for the removal of the Orban Government affected his image. In addition, his efforts for forming a new team to lead the party were not as fruitful as desired.

Local elections campaign has started in Romania, and the elections are scheduled for the 27th of September. The ones for the seats in the Parliament are intended for December, but SDP is trying to delay them for the spring of 2021, by forcing a vote in the Parliament. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government completed the normative act regarding the state of alert in Romania with health protection rules that must be enhanced during the electoral campaign. Besides the classical protection measures, such as wearing a protective mask and respecting the social distance, election rallies are limited to 20 persons inside and maximum 50 outside. The situation is tensed, as the number of infected persons is expected to continue to increase on the background of school opening and the medical system would not resist the pressure of a large number of diseased. The main objective is to organize both the events of the

3 election campaign and the election itself in conditions of maximum health security, to protect human health and to reduce the risk of infection of participants in the electoral process.

The aim of the elections is to establish the persons that will hold the office of president in the 41 city councils in Romania, for over 1,300 positions of county councillors, 40,000 positions of local councillors and for almost 3,200 positions of mayor. The most awaited results are the elections for Bucharest and for the big cities. In some cases, the parties decided to form alliances for gaining more voters, as it is the case of Bucharest, where the SDP representative will confront the one supported by the alliance between NLP and USR.