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| Power fails to pass a law in Parliament 25/05/2011 |
| (2011-05-25) |
| Last updated: 2011-05-26 15:43 EET |
Deputies in the ruling parties have failed to pas a law on restructuring the Interior Ministry, which trade unions have strongly contested, due to the massive layoffs it calls for. Some deputies in the ruling coalition voted against the bill, which shows that the majority no longer acts in accord.
The government in Bucharest has seen an unexpected parliamentary failure in the Chamber of Deputies, which, unlike the Senate, runs a lower risk of seeing a change in the power-opposition seat ratio. Coalition partners, that is the Democratic Liberal Party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, the National Union for Romania’s Progress and national minorities, have failed to gather enough votes to adopt a bill that provides for personnel layoffs at the Interior Ministry.
A Liberal Democrat, two deputies of the National Union for Romania’s Progress and three deputies of the national minorities group voted against the law, while the MPs of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania were the only ones to observe the coalition agreement. Since the Chamber of Deputies was the decision-making body in this situation, the bill fell through. This flaw in the parliamentary majority only confirms its frailty and casts doubt over the coherence and efficiency of the legislative process.
As for the desired restructuring of the Interior Ministry, the Government has few options at hand. The first one, which is also the slowest from the procedural point of view, would be to draft a new law. But this could only be subject to debate in autumn. On the other hand, the executive is free to seek a vote on confidence, an instrument it has resorted to excessively, as political adversaries claim, but which has worked so far. There is however a risk that is hard to ignore – the government may fall upon a potential motion of censure submitted by the opposition, following the vote of confidence.
The political context is volatile and the coalition is shaky, as the Chamber vote shows. However, the Interior Ministry must be restructured, government representatives say, even if it means sacking 10 000 employees. Interior minister Traian Igas primarily puts forth the excessive number of police officers per 1000 inhabitants, which is above the EU average. Customs and Police trade unionists, the first ones to be affected by layoffs, do not see eye to eye with minister Igas.
Police trade unionist Vasile Lincu hailed the deputies’ vote, which he considers a victory of reason. He believes that viable alternatives to layoffs are reducing or ceasing the payment of annual performance bonuses within the Ministry. The amount of money thus saved would be higher than the layoff savings, Vasile Lincu claims. He warns that the sacking of such a high number of Interior Ministry employees would affect not only police officers and their families, but the entire population, which uses the Ministry’s services.
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