With a majority of 61 votes to 59, the Romanian opposition parties have endorsed in the Senate a simple motion against labor minister Simona Bucura Oprescu, according to Hotnews.ro. It was the first defeat of the ruling coalition in Parliament, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion, announced.

The simple motion, not aimed at overthrowing but only penalising labor minister Oprescu, focused on the government's refusal to adjust the public pensions to inflation at the beginning of the year, as provided by the law, citing budgetary constraints.

The outcome of the vote in the Senate, where the ruling coalition holds a majority more fragile than in the Chamber of Deputies, was a combination of low vote attendance among the ruling coalition's members and the reformist party USR joining the far-right opposition on this particular matter.

The ruling coalition has 68 MPs in the Senate, compared to the 45 MPs of the far-right coalition (AUR-SOS-POT) and the 19 MPs of the reformist USR. 

At the beginning of the debates, labor minister Simona Bucura Oprescu stated that the motion was based on false data and untruths.

"The opposition's initiative to submit a motion (…) is an important and necessary democratic exercise. (…) But I cannot agree that this initiative by the opposition is built on false data, half-truths, or omissions specifically designed to distort reality and misinform people!" the minister argued.

Both she and her coalition colleagues from PSD and PNL accused the motion of being an electoral move and that "it is not at all a coincidence that you chose the moment for this motion, less than a week before the first round of the presidential elections."

"Your stake is not a fair one! It's just an electoral combination! You are trying to speculate on the hardships of pensioners in order to get their votes!" said Simona Bucura Oprescu.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Alexandru Busca)