Romania: No-confidence vote stalled, political crisis grows

By STEPHEN McGRATH
Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s governing National Liberal Party has blocked a no-confidence motion brought by a former coalition partner following a week of political turmoil in the Eastern European country. The crisis began last week after the prime minister sacked the justice minister — a member of the USR-Plus junior coalition partner — for not approving a 10-billion-euro ($12 billion) regional infrastructure development program. The minister’s firing angered USR-Plus, which withdrew support for the prime minister and tabled a no-confidence motion — with the support of a far-right party — against him. But on Thursday the center-right Liberals abstained from the no-confidence vote along with the opposition Social Democrat Party, blocking the voting from going ahead as there wasn’t a quorum.