The freshly appointed center-right government is standing on shaky ground, as it has to deliver on the ambiguous promises it made to its partners. Representatives of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) will mercilessly vote for a motion of no-confidence in the government of liberal (PNL) politician Ludovic Orban if it doesn’t respect the agreement made before they ousted the PSD government led by Viorica Dăncilă, Attila Korodi, RMDSZ caucus leader, told Hungarian newspaper Maszol.
The topic of the dispute is the introduction of a two-round system for the municipal elections due next year. If the bill is modified, it is estimated that the RMDSZ will lose about 20% of the mayoral offices they now control. This is why the Alliance strongly opposes such changes in the electoral system.
Before the Dăncilă government was ousted, the liberal party opened discussions with many parties to secure enough votes for the motion of no-confidence to succeed. The RMDSZ agreed to support the PNL if they kept the current, single-round election system for the mayoral elections, which will take place in 2020. The National Liberal Party promised to do that, so the RMDSZ supported the initiative, which ultimately ousted the Dăncilă government prior to the presidential elections this year.
The Save Romania Union (USR) also supported the initiative, asking the Liberal Party in exchange to support the modification of the election bill to introduce the two-round election system. Such a system is also backed by the People’s Movement Party or PMP, and freshly re-elected president Klaus Iohannis is also a strong supporter of the two-round system.
The only party – along with the RMDSZ – against the modification is the PSD.
Sources have told G4Media that the government intends to adopt a bill in January next year, under which it will take responsibility for the passage of pieces of legislation including the introduction of the two-round election system.
If the government adopts this bill, we will go against it, Korodi told Maszol. This will likely oust the center-right government, he added. The RMDSZ will partner with the PSD to initiate a motion of no-confidence in the government.
Title image: Attila Korodi, RMDSZ caucus leader. Photo: Eduard Enea
