Following an unpleasant incident between two politicians when considering a motion in Parliament against Energy Minister Virgil Popescu on Monday, Spokesman for the National Liberal Party (PNL) Ionut Stroe said such slippages must be severely punished.
"Today, violence has risen to the podium in Parliament and taken the floor by force. A minister has been explicitly attacked. It does not matter what was being discussed. It is by far the biggest threat to democracy in Romania in recent years. And it is a recurrence of the same party, after a December assault on Parliament and other similar gestures. Such behaviour is beyond comprehension. The composition of these scandals, with much hate speech and character assassination is obvious. We cannot ridicule or mistake today's incident for a regular 'debate' or a 'political conflict.' There is a need for strong condemnation from all other players involved in the political game, and such slippages must be severely punished," Stroe wrote on Facebook on Monday.
He pointed out that "no matter how much dissatisfaction there is in society, no matter how many trials we face, any drift towards violence is unacceptable, and those who promise to solve problems with their fists must be publicly shunned", Agerpres.ro informs.
A Monday plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies debating a simple motion tabled by the Save Romania Union (USR) was suspended after remarks by Energy Minister Virgil Popescu was interrupted by George Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), who went up to the rostrum and took the minister by the arm and exchanging words with him.
After a meeting of the Committee of Floor Leaders, the plenary session resumed, but without the participation of the minister or the MPs of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), PNL, the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romanis (UDMR) and the ethnic minority MPs.