The first test for the Ungureanu cabinet, before the Parliament

Today, the Parliament will debate and vote the motion of no-confidence which the USL filed last Wednesday against the Government led by Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu.

Victor Ponta, the president of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) said, on the occasion of the filing of the motion, that the groups of the USL have gathered 217 votes together, and the number of votes which is needed for the motion to pass is 231. Last week, senator Mihaela Popa resigned from the PDL and joined the National Liberal Party. On the same day, UNPR senator Corneliu Grosu announced that he was going to vote in favor of the motion, because the decision of the Government to create the Medicine and Pharmaceutical Studies Faculty (UMF) Târgu Mureş leads to a segregation of the medical education in the county of Mureş, through a "brutal intervention" of the Government.

Deputy Marius Dugulescu and senator Dorin Păran last Friday resigned from the PDL, and joined the PNL. Deputy Iosif Blaga intends to follow in their footsteps, according to sources from the PNL.

If this move gets accomplished, and Corneliu Grosu will stand by the decision which he announced last Thursday, the motion of no-confidence will only need nine votes to go through.

Assuming that no other member of the parties which make up the government coalition (PDL, UDMR and UNPR) decide to switch over to the side of the Opposition until the moment of the vote or to vote in favor of the motion, the opposition will have to get the votes it is missing from the groups of minorities and from that of the non-affiliated members of the parliament.

Since the minorities voted the same as the government coalition every time, the hopes of the USL seem to rest with the eleven independent parliamentarians (two senators and nine deputies). As deputy Mihail Boldea is currently under arrest, that leaves ten independents.

Deputy Mircia Giurgiu said that he is going to vote in favor of the motion, because he disagrees with the violation of university autonomy by the government in the case of UMF Târgu Mureş and with the sale of the natural resources of the country, which has no benefits for the citizens o the country.

Deputy Ioan Munteanu also said that he would vote in favor of the motion, provided all the parliamentarians of the USL are present in the at the moment of the vote.

Deputies Dan Ilie Morega, Daniel Vasile Oajdea and Marian-Florian Săniuţă said that they are going to decide on the vote after analyzing and debating the project of the motion. Dan Ilie Morega said that he intends to vote according to the requests of the citizens who support him and to his own conscience, and he explained that if the motion will be solid, he will vote to support it. Marian-Florian Săniuţă said he would vote "with his heart on the left and with his mind on the right". The other independent members of the parliament could not be reached.

Under these circumstances, the USL still needs to attract seven more votes in favor of the motion from eight parliamentarians.

Yesterday, PM Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu reiterated that he has "no emotions at all" on the motion of no-confidence submitted by the opposition and that he is waiting for the opportunity to speak to the Parliament and to the entire country. He considers that the vote of no-confidence needs to receive an answer on a technical and principle level. The PM had previously said that he was happy that the opposition had submitted a vote of no-confidence against the Government, because that gives him the opportunity to also talk to the members of the opposition while appearing before the members of the Parliament.

The minister of Agriculture, Stelian Fuia, executive secretary of the PDL, says that there will be no more departures from the party, and the vote of no-confidence of the USL was just a political bait which taken by a few democrat liberal parliamentarians, but he said that the motion will fail.

PDL deputy Silviu Prigoană yesterday said that he was convinced that the parliamentarians who left the PDL over the last few days will not vote in favor of the motion of no-confidence. The recent resignations do not represent a "hemorrhage", because their number is insignificant, he said.

Silviu Prigoană said that the party will decide whether the members of the PDL will vote to stay in the room during the vote: "We will make a decision in that regard, but I don't think there is any point in going in to vote. This motion has no point. It has no impact on the citizens".

The analysts of "Raiffeisen" expect the government will survive the vote of no-confidence, given the fact that it still has the majority in the parliament, a report by the institution states. The officials of "ING Bank" share the same opinion, in a study published last Friday.

Last Wednesday, the USL submitted a vote of no-confidence against the government led by Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu. The document, called "Stop the sold out government. Not like this, ever!", was sent to the Permanent Offices of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies, being signed by 116 parliamentarians, the minimum required number for the approach.