Romania's Government Collapses on No-Confidence Vote

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Romania's pro-European coalition government collapsed Tuesday after parliament overwhelmingly passed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, plunging the European Union member into fresh political uncertainty less than a year after the coalition took office.

The motion, filed last week by the leftist Social Democratic Party (PSD), which withdrew from the coalition in late April, and the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), received 281 votes in favor and four against in the 465-seat parliament. Lawmakers from Bolojan's center-right National Liberal Party (PNL), along with coalition partners Save Romania Union (USR) and the ethnic Hungarian UDMR, abstained. The vote requires 233 in favor to pass.

Bolojan, who assumed the premiership amid economic pressures, described the motion as "cynical and artificial" before the vote. "It seems to be written by people who were not in government every day and did not participate in all the decisions," he said. "It is cynical, because it does not take into account the context in which we find ourselves." He defended his tenure, noting that he implemented "tough but necessary fiscal...