Romanian Senators Who Quit Their Parties To Lose Spots In Senate Committees

Senate quaestor Ioan Chelaru said the Senate’s Standing Office decided to reject the requests addressed by democrat liberals to allow independent senators to maintain their positions in parliament standing committees.

Chelaru said democrat liberals also proposed an alternative, namely that senators who quit parliament parties to join the independent group remain members in the parliament committees they first joined, by increasing the number of committee members.

The Parliament committee for legal matters decided on February 23 with four votes in favor and three votes against, that senators who quit parliament parties may still preserve their positions within the parliament committees where they were appointed, by increasing the number of committee members.

The vote cast by the members of the Committee for legal matters was contested by Committee president Toni Grebla who said he was allowed to cast a vote on behalf of senator Dan Sova who could not attend the meeting and who was against the proposition put to the vote.

The matter was transferred to the Senate’s Standing Office who rejected both propositions made by democrat liberals. Thereby, the political parties that lost members will designate new senators to replace in parliament committees those who chose to join the independent MP group.

Several social democrat lawmakers left the party after internal elections and joined the group of independent lawmakers.