Parliament to vote on president suspension today

Newsroom 06/07/2012 | 08:13

The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies will reunite on Friday in an extraordinary session to debate and vote the suspension of Romania’s President Traian Basescu for breaching the constitution.

The Constitutional Court met this morning to discuss the request of the USL coalition regarding the suspension of President Basescu. The verdict given by the 9 constitutional judges has a consultative role, meaning that the suspension may go ahead event though the judges oppose it.

The suspension request will be debated by the Parliament starting 17:00. President Basescu will attend the debates.

The Ponta government amended the referendum on late Tuesday, stating that the president can be impeached by 51 percent of the people that vote. Until now, this could have happened only if 51 percent of the people eligible to vote would head to the polls.

Traian Basescu was suspended by 322 MPs on 2007 but returned top office after winning a landslide victory in the referendum. Around 6 million people voted against his impeachment, representing 74.4 percent of the people that headed to the polls.