Romania's ruling party continues to battle Geoana

18/03/2010

BUCHAREST, Romania -- The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) announced on Wednesday (March 17th) it will seek a ruling from the Constitutional Court if its efforts to remove Social Democrat Mircea Geoana as speaker of the senate are thwarted. The PDL wants Geoana out for allegedly violating senate rules. Their attempts to initiate a vote of no confidence have failed several times already, after both the Senate's Permanent Bureau and Geoana himself as speaker declined to bring the issue to a vote. As a result, work in the senate has virtually ground to a halt.

In other news Wednesday, Cristian Anghel, mayor of the northwest town of Baia Mare, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for misappropriating public funds. Prosecutors said Anghel, of the opposition National Liberal Party, paid far too much for property in 2006 to build a city hall. (Mediafax, Realitatea, Mediafax, Agerpres, AP, Cotidianul, Gandul, Evenimentul Zilei - 17/03/10)