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The sitting of the Chamber of Deputies was resumed on Monday, after the incident in which the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) leader George Simion assaulted Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, but he will no longer participate and will submit his point of view in writing, and the deputies of Social Democratic Party (PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL), Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR) and of the national minorities leave the sitting.
"It was decided in the committee of group leaders to continue the debates. The Minister has decided not to attend the meeting and will send his point of view in writing. (...) The PNL group will leave the sitting room, the procedure of debating the motion will continue. I would have expected the sitting not to continue today, as such monstrosities have nothing to look for in the Parliament," announced the leader of the PNL deputies, Gabriel Andronache.
The leader of the PSD deputies, Alfred Simonis, specified, in his turn, that the social democrats do not participate in the meeting either.
"I would have preferred the meeting not to be resumed, to be taken only to the final vote. Unfortunately, the USR and AUR have decided to continue the sitting. The PSD group will also leave the sitting," Simonis said.
The leader of the UDMR deputies, Csomo Botond, announced that the UDMR also decided not to attend the sitting, in protest.
"We believe that what happened was very serious and the regulations need to be amended, to have drastic sanctions," the UDMR leader added.
USR MP Dan Barna said that "what happened is unacceptable and intolerable" and called for the regulation to be amended, saying it was important for citizens to know what was going on with the bills.
"What the majority is doing is taking advantage of the violence to give up the debate, I did not agree," Barna said.
Monday's plenary sitting of the Chamber of Deputies debating the simple USR motion was suspended, after the speech of the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, was interrupted by George Simion, leader of AUR, who went to the rostrum and assaulted him, having an exchange of remarks with Popescu, Agerpres.ro informs.
During Minister Popescu's speech, George Simion shouted from the hall.
"Can I tell Mr. Simion to go to Mr. Putin to make the gas cheaper?" Popescu told Simion.
In reply, he came to the rostrum and abruptly called Popescu, calling him a 'thief'.
"Mr. Simion, get your hands on the minister. I ask the quaestors to remove Mr. Simion," said Daniel Suciu, chairman of the sitting.
The sitting was adjourned for a short time, after which Daniel Suciu said that it was unprecedented for a minister to be physically assaulted during the speech and suspended the meeting.
