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Today, in joint plenary session the censure motion against Prime Minister Florin Citu will be read
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.
On yje other hand, the Social Democratic Party (PSD - opposition)) parliamentarians will participate on Thursday in the joint plenary session in which the censure motion will be read.
The leader of the PSD senators, Lucian Romascanu, declared on Wednesday that the social-democratic MPs will participate in the joint plenary session convened for Thursday at 16.00.
If the meeting of the joint Standing Bureaus is convened again in order to establish the agenda of the joint plenary session, the PSD will most likely not participate.
"At the Standing Bureau meeting, the mere presence without a vote or abstention means a vote against and PSD does not want to get involved in the failed alliance conflict. So most likely we will not participate," Romascanu said.