Bolojan will vote in the PSD government, then move to the opposition

Ilie Bolojan, leader of the PNL and acting prime minister, explained on Thursday on Facebookwhy his party will vote to confirm Luca Niculescu's government, in which eleven PSD ministers will sit. “This vote will not be a vote of confidence. This vote is about getting out of a long crisis that Romania can no longer afford,” he wrote. According to a report by HotNews, the Liberal parliamentary caucuses decided on Wednesday to vote for the government's inauguration, while the party itself will move into opposition. The final decision will be made by the PNL's National Political Bureau over the weekend.

Bolojan stressed that the PNL's vote applies only to the government's inauguration, that the Liberals will go into opposition, and that under no circumstances will they restore the coalition with the PSD. In his view, responsibility for the government's composition lies solely with the independent prime minister appointed by the president, whose duty it is to form a cabinet and secure a majority for its inauguration. He acknowledged that his party is taking a political risk, since whenever the government makes a mistake, the Liberals will be blamed for this vote, even though they are fully embracing their role in opposition.

he wrote. He added that the PNL reserves the right to initiate a motion of no confidence after the government takes office. “We are not voting to politically rescue those who caused the crisis. We can vote so that Romania can get out of it,” he concluded. The arithmetic now seems settled. The government's inauguration requires 233 votes. The PSD, the PNL, the RMDSZ (the Hungarian minority party), the national minorities' caucus and the “For a United Romania” group have all signaled their support, so on paper 279 votes could be gathered.

The Liberals are thus helping to bring to power a government formed by those who, five months ago, brought down their own government with AUR's help. What's more, the cabinet is starting out with scandals even before being sworn in, since the Interior Ministry would go to Marian Neacșu, who received a final, suspended prison sentence before being rehabilitated — and he is being proposed by none other than Grindeanu, who just days ago was still demanding that “people with a criminal record should not hold public office.” The Economy Ministry, meanwhile, would go to Senator Daniel Zamfir, one of the loudest political opponents of big business and the banks. Bolojan's argument — that hospitals need money, and a government is needed for that — is hard to refute, but it is far less convincing that this government must be installed with the Liberals' votes only to then be criticized from the opposition. It is an old tradition of Romanian politics that everyone votes responsibly, yet no one is responsible for what they voted for.

Ugar