2020 calendar: The main political events in Romania
2019 was the year of many political scandals and important power changes but 2020 also comes with major political events.<o:p></o:p>
RI Newsroom · Journalist
· Updated · 4 min read
2019 was the year of many political scandals and important power changes but 2020 also comes with major political events.
2019 was a complicated year for the Social Democrats, which faced defeat after defeat in both the European and presidential elections, and saw their government dismissed by no-confidence motion. On the other hand, the Liberals had a great year, as president Klaus Iohannis won another mandate and the National Liberal Party managed to install its own government at the end of the year. 2020 will also be a busy year for the local politicians, as both local and parliamentary elections will be held this year, the Social Democrats will elect a new president, and long disputed draft laws are on the Parliament’s table.
A new parliamentary session
The Romanian MPs will return to work in early February when a new parliamentary session begins.
One of the hottest draft laws to de debated and voted in the new session targets a change in the electoral law, namely the returning to the two-round mayoral elections. An important change given that the Romanians will elect new mayors later this year.
This amendment is supported by the National Liberal Party (PNL), Save Romania Union (USR), People’s Movement Party (PMP), the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) and Pro Romania, all parties that would rather benefit from such a change. On the other hand, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) have rejected such initiatives in the past.
PSD still holds a majority in the Parliament but the Liberal leader and prime minister Ludovic Orban said at the end of 2019 that the draft law on returning to two-round mayoral elections could pass the Chamber of Deputies with 173 votes in favor, according to local Ziarul Financiar. However, Orban also said at the beginning of January that the government could take the responsibility of such an amendment, local Digi24 reported. Most likely this would be a solution if the bill doesn’t’ pass the Parliament. However, PSD could use this move to file a no-confidence motion against the government. The Social Democrat leader Marcel Ciolacu already announced that the PSD would file a no-confidence motion against the PNL government in the upcoming parliamentary session.
