Financiarul

President Traian Basescu maintained Thursday evening that the negative assent given by the judicial committees in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies at his letter on the referendum for a one-chamber parliament, to be held on the presidential elections day, would prove fear of losing the privileges, but he underlined he was going to sign the decree on referendum organization despite the lawmakers’ opposition.

“I have launched this referendum. And it will be a referendum in spite of all Parliament’s opposition because nobody can take the pen from my hand when I sign the respective decree. I will sign the decree at the moment it deems adequate to me, when the time I can wait for the Parliament to decide lapses, but my concern is that there will not be sufficient people voting in the referendum, so it can pass”, said Traian Basescu.

In Romania the two-chamber Parliament was introduced through a referendum and it must cease its existence also through a referendum, explained the President who proposed a cut in the number of MPs from 471 to a maximum 300. President Basescu came with some examples of other countries, emphasizing that there are more than 150 senators in Romania, whereas The Netherlands has 75 and the USA 100.

Quoting the results of some opinion polls, the head of state said that Romanians want in a proportion of 70-89 percent a one-chamber parliament, implicitly through a reduction in MPs number. Basescu stressed that the referendum can be validated with half plus one of the electors, and the presence to the polls should be of approximately 9 million people.

The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate judicial committees gave a negative assent on Oct. 14 to President Traian Basescu’s letter on the organization of a referendum seeking a one-chamber parliament on the occasion of the presidential elections.

The decision was taken by 18 votes in favor, cast by MPs from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) and 12 against, of the MPs from the Democrat Liberal Party (PD-L).