Parliament - on recess until September 1; possible extraordinary session in Senate, in July, for repeal of SIIJ

 

The National Liberal Party (PNL), Save Romania Union - Party of Unity, Freedom and Solidarity (USR PLUS) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) majority, formed in December 2020, managed between February 1 and June 30, namely in the first ordinary session of this year, working both physically and online during the pandemic, to adopt the state budget in Parliament for the current year, several normative acts, but also many emergency ordinances, to appoint leaders of institutions under parliamentary control and to reject simple motions and a motion of censure of the Opposition.

 

The first session of the 2020-2024 legislature ended on Wednesday, with a solemn joint sitting of Parliament to commemorate, for the first time in its history, the victims of the Iasi anti-Jewish Pogrom (June 28 - 30, 1941)..

 

One day before the end of the session, the Parliament rejected the motion of censure initiated by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) titled "Failed Romania. The 'fantastic' record of the Citu Government". The total number of parliamentarians who voted in the motion of censure was 202, of whom 201 voted "in favour" and there was only one vote "against" it.

 

For the motion to be adopted, 234 votes were needed "in favour", namely half plus one of the number of seats.

 

On Wednesday, the last day of the session, the Senate took a final vote in its plenary sitting, a divergent vote accompanied by contradictory statements between the coalition parliamentarians, adopting a draft law which provides that, in case school principals are not appointed by competition, interim principals should be appointed by the school boards and not by the school inspectorates.

 

In the coalition, it was agreed to hold an extraordinary session in the Senate in July to adopt the draft law on the repeal of the Criminal Crimes Investigation Section, following the approval of the Venice Commission.

 

There was a plenary session in the Chamber of Deputies, on the last day of the session, as well during which the law on empowering the Government to issue ordinances during the parliamentary vacation was adopted. Two other important bills that received the vote of the deputies are the one according to which the incitement to violence, hatred or discrimination against a person on the grounds that he/she belongs to a certain category is punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years or a fine and which establishes that the value of the social reference indicator is updated, ex officio, every year, on March 1, with the average annual inflation rate of the previous year.

 

At the end of the session, Parliament revoked Renate Weber from the position of Ombudsman. The revocation was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on June 29. The parliamentary majority intended to appoint Fabian Gyula to this position.