Parliament passes simple motions against Interior, Education ministers

The simple motion against Interior Minister Marcel Vela has been adopted by 65 votes in favour, 25 against and 6 abstentions by the Senate today.

The motion’s authors asked for the minister Vela’s resignation, claiming that “a long series of conflicting decisions” have been taken through the military ordinances issued by the ministry during the state of emergency and that a number of restrictions initially imposed have been later canceled.

PSD senators said that Vela’s name is associated  with “chaos”, accusing the minister that he “has lamentably managed the one million Romanians’ arrival in the country”. Social Democrats also blame Vela for turning the fines “in a disguised tax on coronavirus”.

In retort, attending the Senate’s plenary session on Tuesday, Marcel Vela stated that the position of Interior minister “represents the most important mission of his life”. He accused the PSD senators that the motion text had started with a fake news, bringing documents in his defence to prove that the previous Social Democrat government had ignored the Emergency Situation Department’s requests to supplement the medicine and medical equipment stocks.

The Liberal Interior minister said that Romania had not been prepared for the pandemic when his government had come to power as the Social Democrats had left the country’s medical stocks empty.

“This war with an invisible enemy has led the mankind in a point where it was not prepared. Nothing was to make us ready for what such a thing. But we have all adapted. We had to take decisions in split seconds. The resources were consumed (…) The Department for the Emergency Situations has repeatedly asked the Health Ministry since 2017 to supplement the stocks. All actions undertaken from 2017 to 2019 have not been considered by the PSD government, as the DSU addresses reveal. I also brought the documents here. DSU told ex-PM Viorica Dancila that there is a national vulnerability. You were in power. It was you who did not prepare the country for the pandemic”, minister Vela accused the Social Democrats.

Motion against Education Minister passed in the Chamber of Deputies

On the other hand, also today, the Chamber of Deputies has passed the simple motion against another Liberal minister, the Education one, Monica Anisie.

Entitled “Step by step we reached an educational collapse-PNL has created the Uneducated Romania”, the motion passed by 172 votes in favour, 90 against and 47 abstentions. The motion has been initiated by 93 deputies from PSD and Pro Romania.

“We have three important exams this summer: the National Evaluation, the Baccalaureate and the teacher certification exam. Mrs Anisie has already failed all them.

I followed the debate of the motion, the minister has not worn the facemask and gloves during the 3 hours of session. Think about the children, not to mention the teachers, who will have to observe some rules that not even the Education Ministry can respect,” said Pro Romania leader, Victor Ponta, referring to the ministry’s order that the high school entrance and graduation exams will take place in June and July with pupils and teachers wearing facemasks. The students will have their temperature scanned before entering the exams.

Ponta added that he doesn’t expect PM Ludovic Orban to dismiss minister Anisie, arguing that “it is very hard for Mr Orban to find an Education minister that is even less competent than himself”.