Ponta eyes constitutional reform

Coalition wins 66% of seats in the parliament as centre-right alliance splits up because of bad result.

Romania’s ruling coalition won an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday (9 December), securing enough seats – pending confirmation – to change the constitution. 

The formal process of establishing a government will begin tomorrow afternoon (14 December), after President Traian Basescu returns from the two-day European Council. Victor Ponta, the winning coalition’s leader and the serving prime minister, said he would like to have a cabinet in place by the end of this year.

Basescu made clear ahead of the election that he would find it very hard to stomach another government under Ponta – it would be like “swallowing a pig”, he said – after seven months of co-habitation in which the Ponta-led Social Liberal Union (USL) suspended Basescu for 52 days and sought his impeachment. Ponta also brought in a raft of sweeping measures using emergency edicts, which were reversed only under pressure from the European Commission.

However, Basescu’s room for manoeuvre is limited. Crin Antonescu, who leads the liberal wing of the ruling coalition, warned during the election campaign that the USL may make another attempt to impeach Basescu if he “goes against the spirit of the constitution and the clear display of the political will of the electorate”.

Ponta himself made a very clear, albeit less specific, threat after the election. “In the period immediately after the election, he who raises the sword will die by the sword,” he said. “I hope this message will be understood by all those who were at the root of this lost year for Romania.”

Ponta and Antonescu have been fortified by the massive mandate given to their alliance by the electorate. The USL, which was formed 21 months ago, won 58.6% of the popular vote in elections to the lower house of parliament, enough to give it 66% of seats. It also won 60.1% in the Senate election, giving it almost 70% of seats in the upper house.

Constituional changes

The provisional results – which may be confirmed tomorrow – give the USL the possibility of changing the constitution without the support of other parties. Ponta, who leads the socialist wing of the USL, indicated in the immediate aftermath of the vote that he would seek a ‘super-majority’ with a party representing Romania’s Hungarian minority. The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UMDR) secured 5.3% of the vote.

However, Antonescu’s liberals have ruled out incorporation of the UMDR into the government.

The election decimated the centre-right. A coalition created in September in an attempt to salvage votes, the three-party Alliance of the Romanian Right (ARD), won just 16.7% of the vote. The effect has been to halve the alliance’s seats in the lower house. The ARD has already disbanded itself.

Its poor showing was almost matched by the last of the four parties to enter parliament, the populist People’s Party-Dan Diaconescu, formed and named after a charismatic and controversial media magnate.

Projections of the exact distribution of seats vary, as the size of the parliament has been expanded. That change and the USL’s proximity to a constitutional majority add to the importance of the announcement of the final results by the central electoral committee.

Turnout was low by European standards – at 41.7% – but was higher than in the last parliamentary elections in 2008, when 39.2% of the electorate cast votes.

Click Here: Geelong Cats Guernsey

In the coming weeks, probably in early January, the European Commission will publish its latest assessment of Romania’s progress since its accession to the EU in 2007. The annual report – part of a ‘control and verification mechanism’ established because of concerns about Romania’s readiness for EU membership – has traditionally been published in mid-year, but the Commission brought forward this report because of the past summer’s political crisis.

One of the new government’s immediate tasks will be to negotiate a stand-by financing arrangement with the International Monetary Fund, to replace the current facility when it expires in April.