Romania’s pro-European Union coalition government has collapsed after a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, raising fears of a fiscal crisis.
According to Al Jazeera, after a parliamentary debate on Tuesday, May 5, 281 legislators voted in favour of the motion and four against.
The effort was launched last week when the left-wing Social Democratic Party (PSD), which withdrew from the coalition in late April, and the far-right opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party (AUR) submitted the motion to parliament.
MPs from Bolojan’s centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL) and coalition partners Save Romania Union party and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party did not vote.
Although snap elections look unlikely, financial markets showed concern that the turbulence could mean Bucharest wavers in its commitment to narrowing the EU’s biggest budget deficit.
The leu, Romania’s currency, fell to a record low against the euro before Tuesday’s vote.
Bolojan called the no-confidence motion “cynical and artificial” and said before the vote that it “seems to be written by people who were not in government every day and did not participate in all the decisions.”
He said before the vote, “I assumed the position of prime minister, being aware that it comes with enormous pressure and that I would not receive applause from the citizens. But I chose to do what was urgent and necessary for our country. Can anyone say how Romania will function from tomorrow. Do you have a plan?”
Centrist President Nicusor Dan, who nominates the prime minister, is now expected to invite parties for negotiations and try to rebuild the four-party pro-EU coalition under a different member of Bolojan’s Liberals or perhaps a technocrat as prime minister.
The Social Democrats have often said they would rejoin a pro-EU coalition under a different prime minister.
