The majority in parliament will become even more fragile in the fall, when 35 parliamentarians will leave for Brussels, to represent Romania as observers in the European Parliament. Hence passing of legislation will become increasingly difficult for the ruling coalition.
The 35-some were okayed by their respective parties, the leadership of the two legislative chambers and were tutored during a three-day crash-course by European experts on their duties in Strasbourg; so, now they are ready for their observer jobs to start in September this year and last till Romania will integrate fully into the European Union.
Thus, just as the coalition was struggling to decide over organizing early elections or not in order to garner a wider support for its policies, it will shrink to 140 deputies, of the initial 152, while the opposition will go down to 131, from 142 before.
Therefore the insurmountable hurdle will arrive when the ruling coalition will attempt to pass laws which require a majority vote of the nominal number of the House members, which cannot been reached now even if the 18 votes of the minorities and the 19 independent votes will follow it.
The situation in the Senate is not any rosier. The ruling coalition already got a series of blows during the past legislative term and the future might bring more of the same, since the balance of votes will stay now at 66 to 57, from 72 to 63 before, and only two independent votes to vie for.
Solutions to the problem were already put on the table at the Senate. One proposal was for all laws requiring a majority vote of the members to be crammed in the space of a week or two, allowing thus the parliamentarians with observer status in Strasbourg to attend. The other proposal was for the mail-vote to be accepted. As a matter of fact, the new Senate regulations envisaged a move towards the voting by
