Crushing vote against President

On Wednesday night, with less than 24 hours before the vote in the Parliament, Traian Basescu made an official statement at the Cotroceni Palace.
Like many other moments in the past two years of mandate, the President used the freedom of speech to gloss the truth.
A lot more and a lot more dramatically than he did on Tuesday night, the 17th of April 2007. He said the suspension was abusive, because it was not in accordance to the decision of the Constitutional Court.
According to Article no. 95 in the Constitution, the decision of the Constitutional Court is advisory, but not imperious. In other words, in order to make a decision, the Parliament goes to the Constitutional Court to ask for a specialized opinion. Of course, the decision of the Court is important. The President can use it to say he did not break the Constitution and that the vote in the Parliament is strictly political. The decision of the Court can or cannot be taken into consideration by the Parliament, which will be held responsible for suspending the President even if the specialized decision is totally different.
As I showed before, the 2007 moment cannot be understood without referring to a similar one: July 1994.

As a consequence of a statement made by President Ion Iliescu in Satu-Mare in May 1994, the Opposition started the procedures to suspend him. According to the Constitution, after the session on the 4th of July 1994 (when the initiation of a supplementary Commission is discussed), the Parliament sends the request of the Opposition to the Constitutional Court.

The next day, on the 5th of July 1994, the Constitutional Court decides that the statement in Satu-Mare is not serious breaking of the Constitution, making it “a political option without any juridical basis”. On the 6th of July 1994, the decision is published in the Official Gazette. On the 7th of July 1994, the suspension request is debated upon and voted in the Parliament.
Unlike the one in the Iliescu case, the decision in the Traian Basescu case says:
“The Parliament is to decide, based on the data and information that will be shown, the gravity of the facts for which the suspension of the Romanian President was proposed, in accordance to the article no. 95 in the Constitution”.

Therefore, the Constitutional Court itself, unlike the 1994 case, let the Parliament organize a voting session regarding the suspension, not just because this is written in the Constitution, but because, as shown in the contents, the Court considers that there haven’t been any serious acts against the Constitution.
Therefore, from the Constitutional point of view, one cannot say this is an abusive suspension.

Traian Basescu and his acolytes continue saying that this is planned by groups interested in overtaking the power, in making the First Speaker of the country shut up.
I actually thought his enemies planned this.
This is why I always considered the suspension a political error and I was against it.

The debates in the Parliament and especially the crushing vote in favor of the suspension convinced me the suspension was imminent.
Especially after the suicidal statement on the 17th of April 2007. A statement through which, as I have shown before, Traian Basescu practically forced the Parliament to suspend him.
Was it a fatal error caused by bluffing?
Was it a point in a much more vast plan hidden to us, the ordinary people, the consequences of which will take place in the next days?
With yesterday’s vote, the Parliament won a round in the fight against Traian Basescu.
This doesn’t mean the war is over.
What is Traian Basescu’s next move?
We’ll see.