What the newspapers say: June 16, 2010 

Most newspapers on Wednesday note that the government is off the hook, now that it managed to escape the motion, but some papers question Romania’s future from now on. Some newspapers warn that just eight votes were missing to pass the motion. In response, PM Boc will restructure all ministers, and maintain only two state secretaries/ministry. Newspapers predict that the government will be reshuffled as well. In politics, PM Boc won the majority at the Constitutional Court, after the governing coalition pushed for their favorite candidates to occupy the two remaining seats.

Now that the government managed to escape the motion with just eight votes, the Boc government has 13 days to implement salary and pension cuts even though it lost the majority in the Parliament,Romania liberareads. The IMF will decide whether Romania will receive the fourth instalment, worth 850 million euro of the agreement on June 28. Until then, in less than two weeks, the authorities will have to implement the austerity measures.

After the lost vote in the Parliament, the opposition has three days to contest the government’s measures at the Constitutional Court. Court judges usually take weeks to answer, but considering that the government has a 5 to 4 majority in the Court, things might advance faster.

If Constitutional Court judges conclude that the two laws are not constitutional, then they will not be implemented and the IMF agreement falls. If the Court agrees with the laws, they will be pass by the President.

However, the two laws need implementation norms and the government has 15 days to elaborate them. Even if the Boc government continues its mandate, the results of the motion yesterday reveal a new Parliamentary reality: the government lost majority in the Parliament which might question the legitimacy of the exeutive.

Evenimentul Zileireads that the government will reform the ministers to satisfy the electorate: the first to go will be state secretaries. Most ministers have many more secretaries, for example the Foreign Affairs ministry has six, Economy ministry five, Finance, Transports, Development and Justice have four.

Romania liberareads that the Democrat Liberals managed to secure majority in the Constitutional Court. PM Boc had to promise to Hungarian Democrats that its officials will not be affected by the reshuffling just to secure their votes.

Last week, three Constitutional Court judges retired, which left three position to fill: the President had to nominate one, the Chamber of Deputies the second and the Senate, the third. If the President and the Senate managed to nominate a person, Petre Lazaroiu and Iulia Antoanella Motoc, the Chamber of Deputies created chaos among Parliamentarians and after intense scandals, they managed to put forward a name, Mircea Stefan Minea.

Currently, the Democrat Liberals have a 5 to 4 majority at the Constitutional Court, as all their proposals were voted in the Parliament.