Parliament meets for investiture of Citu Government

Parliament will meet in joint session on Thursday, at 16:00 hrs, for the investiture of the Government of Prime Minister designate Florin Citu. According to the joint rules of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, in order for the session in which the investiture of the government will be voted on to take place, the presence of 233 MPs is necessary. All the parliamentary groups announced they will be present at the meeting in order to ensure quorum, unlike the previous session for the Orban II Government. Parliament grants the vote of confidence for the Government by majority of deputies and senators, the number of MPs that have to vote in favour being also 233. The vote is secret, using balls and urns. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) has 202 MPs, the National Liberal Party (PNL) - 113 MPs, Save Romania Union (USR) - 40 MPs, Pro Romania - 21, The Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) - 30, national minorities - 17, People's Movement Party (PMP) - 14, the parliament also having 27 unaffiliated. The Liberals had negotiations with the other parliamentary groups, with the exception of the PSD, in order to form a majority, but they did not mention if they will vote in favor of the Citu Government and if they renounce the early elections. The interim chair of the PSD, Marcel Ciolacu, stated on Monday that the Citu Gov't "is not worth" voting, that the PSD MPs will be present at the meeting, but a final decision will be made following an announcement of the PNL leader, Ludovic Orban, who has to say if the Liberals will vote their own Cabinet without secrecy. The chairman of Pro Romania, Victor Ponta, stated, on Tuesday, that the MPs need to forget what party they're from and vote the investiture of the Citu Government. The chairman of the ALDE Calin Popescu-Tariceanu announced on Wednesady that, in the context of the spreading of the new coronavirus, the MPs of the party will vote on Thursday for the investiture of the Citu Government, considering that "it's better to have a weak government than no government at all". Furthermore, the chairman of the PMP, Eugen Tomac, stated that a stable government is needed in the context of the situation generated by the new coronavirus. The chairman of the USR, Dan Barna, also stated that Romania needs a stable government and added that the party is leaning "very much" towards granting a vote of confidence to the Citu Gov't, but the decision will be taken by the parliamentary group. The chairman of the UDMR, Kelemen Hunor, stated that the MPs of the formation he leads will be in the plenum for the investiture vote, but a decision regarding the vote will be taken on Thursday, right before the plenary session. On February 28, the Prime Minister designate, Florin Citu, submitted to Parliament the Cabinet list and the governing programme. The only modification in the composition of the Citu Gov't over the previous Orban Gov't is the proposal of Lucian Heius to take up the Finance portfolio formerly held by Citu himself. The proposed ministers were heard last week in the select parliamentary committees, nine of them receiving endorsements, while seven did not receive the endorsement of deputies and senators. The endorsement is consultative in nature.AGERPRES(RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)