PSD gives up censure motion as lack of quorum hindered its debate and vote

The Parliament plenary session in which the censure motion was to be debated and voted today was put on hold due to the lack of quorum. For a censure motion to be debated and voted a quorum of 233 MPs were needed, but today’s session only had 226 lawmakers attending the sitting.

“We could not proceed with the vote on the agenda of the extraordinary session,” said the PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu, who is also Chamber of Deputies speaker.

Under these circumstances, the Social Democrats have given up debating and voting the censure motion for good, as the motion would violate the Constitution, as it was tabled during an extraordinary session of the Parliament and would have been voted in the ordinary session due to kick off tomorrow, September 1.

PNL, USR and UDMR have boycotted today’s session that was to debate and vote the motion in protest against PSD’s attempt to topple down the Cabinet. At the same time, several senators and deputies from PSD itself have ‘ditched’ the sitting, so the quorum was not met.

PSD chairman, Marcel Ciolacu argued that the National Liberal Party (PNL) had a strategy so that quorum was not achieved in the sitting that would have the debate and vote of the censure motion, and that if a vote were cast, the PSD would have had 250 options “for” the motion.

Ciolacu announced that the National Political Committee of the PSD will convene in two days at the latest and a political decision will be taken on the steps needed in this regard, adding that the motion will not be withdrawn.

However, soon after his statement, the leader of the Social Democrat deputies, Alfred Simonis has come out stating that the motion is not opportune anymore.

“To talk about a new motion is much too early. We have this motion tabled in an extraordinary session that is ending today. The ordinary session is kicking off tomorrow, I don’t find opportune for this motion to be debated in another session. It is my opinion, I think at this point a talk about this motion is not opportune anymore“, Simonis argued.

On the other side, PM Ludovic Orban announced that if he vote on the motion is rescheduled in the ordinary parliamentary session, he and PNL are considering to file another referral to the Constitutional Court.

” (…) The way I see it, the motion is over and done with, but of course, we must wait for the Constitutional Court ruling, because depending on it we will be able to determine precisely what will follow. The ordinary session starts tomorrow. That’s another strange move, to get with the motion in the third, ordinary session, after tabling it in an extraordinary session and reading it in another extraordinary session,” Orban  had said before the parliamentary session today.

3 SocDem MPs who missed the session will be ousted

PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu had announced after the motion debate and vote had failed that he would propose three PSD lawmakers who missed the sitting today to be ousted from the party.

“What colleagues? The three who have suddenly got sick? Mr. Adrian Totor, Mr. Catalin Radulescu and Mr. Carmen Dan. I will propose the to National Political Committee that those three should be ousted from the party. None of them is sick“, said Ciolacu.

Before the vote, PSD senator Carmen Dan had posted a Facebook message announcing she is in isolation after her mother had got infected with COVID-19. At the same time, PSD deputy Catalin Radulescu was reportedly hospitalized with bronchitis, while his colleague Adrain Todor was also put under quarantine as he was contact of a person confirmed with coronavirus.