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Romania’s parliament decides to impeach head of state

06 July 2012 22:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Romania’s Parliament on Friday approved, by a vote of 256 to 114, the impeachment proposal against President Traian Basescu, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The Parliament also decided by vote that the referendum on the impeachment will take place on July 29. The Constitution says that if the president is impeached, a referendum is to be organized in a maximum of 30 days so that the Romanians can express their will on further keeping the head of state in his office or not.

If 50 percent plus one of the voters agree, the president will be dismissed and presidential elections will be held during the following three months.

If Bssescu is dismissed, Crin Antonescu, the newly-elected Senate President, will serve as Interim Head of State until a new president is elected.

The Parliament plenum assembled in joint meeting within the extraordinary session meant to debate and vote the impeachment request against the president submitted by the Social Liberal Union, a ruling alliance made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Conservative Party.

The alliance claims in its petition that Basescu has repeatedly violated the principle of separation of power in the state and the independence of the judiciary.

According to the petition, Basescu has constantly tried, during his second term in office, to destroy the Romanian democratic system and, by repeatedly violating the Constitution, to turn the country’s political regime into a presidential regime, headed by one man, who took over the attributions of all other state institutions.

It is the second time Basescu is facing impeachment, after having survived the last attempt in 2007.

Within a few hours on Tuesday, the Social Liberal Union replaced the presidents of the parliament’s two chambers. This created a huge outcry and led to the current drive to oust him from office.

The union came to power in late April after a no-confidence motion toppled the 78-day-long center-right government led by former intelligence chief Mihai Razvan Ungureanu.

The ruling alliance won most of the seats in local elections on June 10.