The Parliament Is Unable to Work

Political wrangling for toppling the current Speakers sof the Social Democrat Party, in the oppositiont of the two Houses of Parliament gets ugly by the day and undermines the credibility of these institutions in the public eye.

All this dog-fight stems from the make of the parliament resulted in the elections last fall, and in the fragile majority mustered by Traian Basescu, after his election as president.

The fragile majority makes it impossible for the ruling coalition to control either House of Parliament, hence the ensuing fight for taking back the Speaker seats from the opposition.

Basescu asked for early elections because he could see the guerrilla war about to start inside the elected bodies, but parliamentarians - be they in the ruling coalition or in the opposition - did their best to block his initiative.

PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu threatened even to resign, in order to stop the presidential plan for early elections.

Still Romania and its citizens are the first standing to lose from this fragile majority which paralyzes the work of the parliament.

Changing the Speakers of the two Houses will not change things for the better.

Yet, the ruling coalition made its priority to bring down the two Speakers, instead of passing legislation meant to help the people in the flooded areas or the one relevant for the European integration.

At the same time, the opposition is unrelenting, and does not give up those two top positions, though holding them or not is of no real consequence for the working of parliament.

I truly believe that if Nicolae Vacaroiu and Adrian Nastase sthe two SDP Speakers of the Senate and House, respectivelyt would resign, they would prove that the ruling coalition is not worth much.

Also, I think it was a mistake for the opposition to file motion after motion in order to stop the ruling coalition from starting procedures for removing the Speakers. It will take a long while till the motion will come to mean again to the Romanian voter something important and worth considering in parliament.

This stalemate will be solved most probably with calling early elections.