Breaking news: The censure motion filed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and endorsed by USR and AUR has been adopted on Tuesday, according to the parallel count conducted by PSD and USR, so the Cabinet led by PM Florin Citu has been dismissed, after less than 11 months in office and one month after USR-PLUS had withdrawn from the ruling coalition government.
The parallel count reveals that the censure motion has passed by 281 votes. It is the highest number of votes that dismissed a government in Romania so far.
No MP has voted against the motion and there were no abstentions. PNL and UDMR lawmakers attended the plenary session, but did not vote.
Citu’s stance
Florin Citu avoided to say who is the next person nominated by the National Liberal Party (PNL) for the PM seat. “PNL will take the best decision for the benefit of the Romanians and of PNL”, Citu told journalists who asked several times if he is still going to be nominated for the PM position. “PNL has a decision on whom will usually go on”, he added, stressing that PNL will observe all CCR rulings.
The Constitutional Court of Romania has ruled that a prime minister sacked by censure motion cannot be the next nomination for the same office.
President Iohannis is to have a public statement today at 18:00hrs.
The two chambers of the Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate were convened in a plenary session today to debate and vote the censure motion submitted by PSD against the Citu Cabinet and entitled “Stop poverty, price hikes and criminals! Down with Citu Government!”.
For PM Citu to be toppled down, 234 votes are needed. PSD announced it would vote the motion in sight. USR and AUR also announced they would vote the motion, with the three parties gathering 280 votes together.
In a symbolical move, the Social Democrats brought in Parliament for the vote a model of an upside down Superman in a pool of blood, a hint to the recent footage posted by Florin Citu on the social media, picturing him as Superman. The opposition leaders took selfies with the collapsed Superman, while Liberals denounced it as “a call to violence”.
In his speech, PM Florin Citu launched a harsh attack against his former ruling partners, USR, blaming them for supporting the censure motion and for the poor performance while they were in the ruling coalition Government. “It would have been more suitable to withdraw the motion today, when we have 15,000 daily Covid-19 cases and 250 deaths. Today the morality had died. The PSD motion, your fiercest enemy, is endorsed by USR-PLUS. I am disappointed that USR is playing a shell game with the government. Dear Romanians, I apologize to you that I believed in USR. Dear Romanians, I inform you with regret that you voted a bipolar party,” PM Citu stated, accusing the poor performance of the former USR ministers at such ministries as the Economy, Transports, Health.
“By today’s vote USR admits it had incompetent ministers. There is nothing left for USR in the Government. I was too much indulgent. I should have sacked them before. I tolerated a team of incompetent ministers at ruling”, Citu said.
The prime minister added that if this Cabinet is dismissed today, they will form another one, “around the Liberal values”. Liberal MP Florin Roman had acknowledge that there are chances for the motion to pass and that the option of a minority PNL-UDMR Cabinet is considered.
UDMR said they would attend the plenary sitting, but they would not vote.
PSD chairman Marcel Ciolacu said that the solution proposed by his party to solve the political crisis, if the motion passes, is a technocrat Cabinet to govern until snap elections.
“I think the prime minister has amnesia. Citu Cabinet will go home today, you have to leave today. You have been fighting like cats and dogs for the PNL leadership for the past nine months. You ended up leading a political corpse. You destroyed the country for a bone. Florin, Superman, you fell, have a smooth ride back home”, Marcel Ciolacu said.
USR said through Dan Barna that they propose Dacian Ciolos as prime minister, attacking Florin Citu. “You could have been a reforming premier, but you played the role of the brakeman of the ruling programme. You cynically scarified the political stability, you failed with the vaccination campaign, you destroyed a coalition that had a huge level of trust. We are here and we shall vote this censure motion. You could have been Superman, but you chose to be a trivial Florin Citu“, Barna told the prime minister.
AUR chairman George Simion had a two-line speech in Parliament on the censure motion, coming to the tribune wearing no facemask.
“We can allot not even one second to this destructive prime minister, who is history as of today. We shall not waste one second on Florin Citu, Good bye“, he said.