PNL's Orban: I will not vote on the motion of censure, and no PNL MP will

Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Ludovic Orban said on Wednesday that he will not vote on a motion of censure against the prime minister and no liberal MP will, emphasising that as national chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL) he defends the government. He said he would propose to the party's Executive Bureau that PNL MPs be present at the sitting of Parliament where the motion of censure will be debated, but abstain from vote. Asked to comment on the fact that the PNL lawmakers who participate in the plenary sitting to consider the motion of censure will be expelled, he said: "no one is allowed to threaten the PNL lawmakers." Also asked if a PNL MP could be penalised if attending the plenary sitting, he replied: "I have never heard of such a thing, to make a political decision that is contrary to the Constitution, to the Rules of Parliament." On Wednesday, at the end of a meeting of the National Political Bureau (PNB) of PNL, Prime Minister Florin Citu said that the PNL lawmakers should not take steps to overthrow their own government and should not participate in the plenary sitting debating the motion tabled by Save Romania Union - Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (USR PLUS) alliance before the signatures affixed to the motion are audited. He added that the PNL BPN took several decisions at Wednesday's meeting in accordance with the powers bestowed on it by the PNL statutes. Asked what will happen to Orban, who convened the joint plenary sitting, Citu replied that the situation will be looked into. "Let us see first if he violated the statutes by calling this sitting - if it is an illegal summoning running against the statutes and PNL - and then there will be penalties," he said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)