Lawmakers from three far-right parties submitted a non-confidence motion against the government headed by Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to the Chamber of Deputies on February 25. 

The parliament will most likely reject the motion. It is more of a political gesture by which the far-right parties are trying to keep political tension high until the presidential elections in May.

The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), SOS Romania and the Party of Youth (POT) together hold 35% of the MP seats in the Romanian parliament. 

The opposition parties accuse Ciolacu of ties with the real estate holding Nordis, which is currently involved in a scandal related to alleged fraud. They claim that the government is not legitimate since Ciolacu was nominated by President Klaus Iohannis after the expiry of his five-year term and accuse the executive of carrying out harmful economic policies.

The motion was delivered to lawmakers at a joint meeting on the evening of February 25. The debate and vote will take place at the joint meeting of the chambers on February 28, according to Agerpres.

154 MPs signed the document, the leader of the AUR senators, Petrișor Peiu, said last week when the motion was first announced. To be endorsed by parliament, the motion needs support from a majority of lawmakers, namely 232.

The motion was signed mainly by lawmakers from the three far-right parties, but also by several lawmakers representing national minorities, he said.  Peiu invited the reformist Union Save Romania (USR) to join.

However, USR, with 13% of the seats in parliament, will not support the motion filed by the far-right parties, MP Ionut Mosteanu announced on his Facebook account.

While USR does not support Ciolacu’s cabinet, this is not a good time for more political turmoil, Mosteanu explained. USR will wait until after the May presidential elections to overthrow the government, he added.

Although there are not enough electoral polls to capture this, the far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu is losing traction among his mostly online electorate as his manipulation strategies are revealed by independent media. A protest rally last weekend organised by Georgescu failed to bring a significant number of people on the streets. On March 1, AUR announced a new rally that it says it expects to bring out 1mn people countrywide.