PM Orban on snap polls: When all conditions are met, we will launch procedures

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on Thursday evening said a team was created to discuss and explore together with the political partners of PNL (the National Liberal Party) the possibility of organising early polls, with procedures in this respect to be initiated as soon as all conditions are met for early polls.

Orban brought to mind that, according to the Constitution, Parliament needs to reject two governments within a minimum of 60 days in order for the President to be able to dissolve the Legislative, and there is also need of a number of MPs to be close to 50 per cent of the total MPs to support this objective.

"We created a team to discuss these things and we are exploring this possibility with our political partners, seeking to create such group that will have a sufficient number of MPs to guarantee the rejection of the two governments. (...) If all these conditions are met, we will initiate the early polls procedure. Otherwise, I want to remind you that we haven't announced publicly and out loud every negotiation we had with X and Y before the censure motion either. Negotiations are sometimes delicate, they require a more delicate approach, and one cannot put on the table or develop a strategy during negotiations in such a manner that the opponent knows what one wants to do. It's clear that we will have these discussions, when conditions are met, and, as far as we are concerned, we will launch the procedure," the PM told Realitatea PLUS private television broadcaster.

He reiterated the fact that PNL supports the organisation of early polls because Parliament is no longer reflecting the options of the population.

"Of course that we want snap polls, the National Liberal Party supports the idea of snap polls, I said this countless of times. And it's normal that we support this, considering that Parliament is no longer reflecting the current options of the population. The options have radically modified and it's clear that Parliament is no longer reflecting what people want, and the power must be returned to the people so that they can choose their own representatives. Moreover, it became clear that there is a profound change in people's options, which also led to Romania returning on its normal track, a fair one, a positive path. And it is very complicated to maintain this path, as long as the current Parliament is the result of the 2016 election and has nothing to do with the current political options of the people," added Orban.