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| The Opposition Wants the Impeachment of the President |
| (2011-11-22) |
| Last updated: 2011-11-23 15:32 EET |
The leaders of the Social-Liberal Union have launched impeachment proceedings against Romanian president Traian Basescu. This is the opposition’s second attempt to cast the president out of office after their bid during the president’s first term in 2007.
At the time, the procedure received Parliament’s approval after being endorsed by 322 MPs, giving grounds to president Basescu and the Liberal Democratic Party to discredit Parliament. The ensuing referendum was however an utter failure for the president’s opponents.
At present, the situation is set within opposite parameters. In theory, the Romanian people has allegedly sided with the opposition, given that the head of state has the sympathy and trust of merely 10% of voters. However, political numbers are against the opposition.
The Liberals, the Social Democrats and the Conservatives have announced they will go ahead with the impeachment proceedings, irrespective of its chances of falling through. They say this is not a whim, but an attempt to castigate a behaviour that occasionally transgressed the borders of constitutionality, particularly after president Basescu had been reelected in 2009. The president of the National Liberal Party, Crin Antonescu:
Crin Antonescu: “It is our firm belief that, ever since the events of December 6th 2009 to date, a serious process of erosion of the rule of law and of undermining state institutions has been unfolding in Romania, outside the dictum of the Constitution. All political action and will have been virtually wielded by a single man, which runs counter to the Constitution”.
Social-Democrat leader Victor Ponta accuses Basescu of subordinating the Government, exerting leverage over the legislative and of repeatedly interfering in the field of the judiciary. The final argument the opposition has provided against president Basescu is the latter’s recent statement, according to which there is no money for restoring salaries in the public sector to the level prior to the budget slashes of 2010, irrespective of the ruling of the Constitutional Court.
Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, consider the president’s impeachment a reckless gesture with no legal grounds and no chances of success. Spokesman for the Liberal Democratic Party Sever Voinescu said:
Sever Voinescu: “If we get to the vote in Parliament, votes in favour of the president’s impeachment will be less than the number of Social-Liberal MPs. I, for one, believe they should rather keep to their domestic concerns within the party, where they have obvious reasons to be concerned about. Everyone can see this political move for what it is, namely as standing zero chances of success. And this is not because this move is at odds with political numbers, but also because it is completely unsubstantiated”.
Why is it, therefore, that the Social-Liberals insist on an apparently unachievable project? Some political pundits say their persistence may spring from an acute lack of ideas and from their willingness to galvanize their political supporters.
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