By Radu-Sorin Marinas
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – The centrist minority government of Prime Minister Ludovic Orban survived a motion of no-confidence in parliament on Monday, ensuring political stability at a time when Romania struggles to curb the coronavius epidemic which has crippled its economy.
Parliamentary debates and the vote were both canceled due to the absence of a quorum in parliament, helping Orban to thwart an attempt by the Social Democrat opposition to oust him, which the opposition had hoped would boost its profile ahead of a municipal election on Sept. 27.
“There is no quorum. We couldn’t proceed to pursue today’s scheduled agenda,” lower house speaker and Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu told parliament. “Only 226 MPs were present against the required 233.”
Romania’s two-house parliament has 465 legislators.
Asked by reporters if he would try to reschedule the vote, Ciolacu said: “There’s nothing to reschedule, it failed. We struggled to form a 233-seat parliament majority and we failed.”
Ciolacu said his party would expel from its ranks all those absentees who helped his no-confidence vote attempt to fail.
The Social Democrats, who lost control of government late last year but remain parliament’s largest party, have seen their popular support halve since sweeping to a 2016 parliamentary election, following its repeated attempts to weaken the rule of law.
Meanwhile, Orban’s party stands a good chance of forming a coalition government after a parliamentary election probably due in December. That could restore investor confidence, eroded by years of political instability and fiscal largesse.
Romania has reported 87,540 coronavirus infections and 3,621 deaths since February and the daily number of infections picked up to average above 1,000 a day in August.
The government has extended a state of alert until mid-September.
(Editing by Alison Williams and Giles Elgood)
