The interim chairwoman of the Senate, Alina Gorghiu, claims that a possible merging of next year's elections is perfectly constitutional, the coalition will decide whether one of the scenarios that can be taken into account will materialize.
"The scenario that these elections can be merged is perfectly constitutional. (...) According to the Constitution, only parliamentary elections have a fixed term. Our sociological analysis shows that a large part of the Romanian population wants a serious legitimization of the elected officials and they do not exclude the idea at all of merging. It remains to be seen what will be the will of the leaders in the coalition," she stated, on Tuesday, in the Senate.
"There are several scenarios that we can take into account. We have to start a little differently, not from what the PNL (National Liberal Party) wants, but from the public interest. If you want a functional administration in 2024 and not a total blockage at the level of public institutions, if you want the population not to be tired for almost a year with electoral campaigns, if you want a significant turnout to legitimize the elected officials of whatever nature they may be, then I think that this topic should be discussed very seriously. We don't have much time left, because one of the provisions of the decisions of the Venice Commission says that the changes must be made at least one year before the election," Gorghiu added.
The Senate acting president believes that possible changes to the legislation that would allow the merging of elections could be made by the end of the current legislative session.