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| The Referendum Law, Revised Again |
| (2012-06-22) |
| Last updated: 2012-06-22 14:43 EET |
According to a recent decision taken by the Romanian Senate, the suspension of the head of state will now be possible with the vote of 50% plus one of those who take part in a referendum on the matter. The Chamber of Deputies is to have a final say on the issue.
It might become much easier to suspend Romania’s president, following the Senate’s recent decision to change the referendum law. According to the new law, the head of state can be suspended if half plus one of the people who take part in the referendum, vote in favor of the motion. Nevertheless, it is the Chamber of Deputies that will have the final say on the matter.
The previous version of the law stipulated that the president had to leave his position if half plus one of the citizens entitled to vote agree to the motion. The revision of the referendum law is an initiative of the Social Liberal Union, an alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, which took power in May and declared open war on President Traian Basescu ever since.
Social Democrat senator Georgica Severin, who initiated the revision of the referendum law, justified the move by the fact that the law was changed several months before when the Social Liberal Union was on parliamentary strike, in protest over what he called ‘the abuse of the then government centered around the pro-presidential Liberal Democratic Party, now in opposition. Georgica Severin explains the reasons behind his proposal:
“Firstly, for the sake of the symmetry principle: it’s absolutely normal for the president to be suspended as easily as he is elected. Secondly, it’s natural that all kinds of referendums should benefit the same conditions, and thirdly, this is the right thing to do.”
On the other hand, an independent senator affiliated with the Liberal Democratic Party, Iulian Urban, has warned that the Liberal Democrats will appeal the new referendum law at the Constitutional Court.
”Signatures have already been collected. We will appeal the law at the Constitutional Court and we will see if they deem it constitutional. So we’ll have to wait for their verdict. We’ll see how the initiators of the revision will use this weapon, in their tactics to suspend President Basescu. This might backfire, in two or three years, since it could be used against a president proposed by the Social Liberal Union.”
This is not the first time that President Basescu, currently in his second term as head of state, is facing suspension. In 2007, following an initiative of the Social Democratic Party, and months of commentaries and accusations, the Parliament in Bucharest decided to suspend Traian Basescu.
He was the first Romanian president to ever be suspended. The main accusation leveled against him was the breaking of the country’s constitution. Nevertheless, a month later, Basescu resumed his position, after a referendum in which three quarters of voters supported him. Another attempt to suspend him took place last year when the Social Liberals, then in opposition, failed to win the parliamentary majority they needed.
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