Romania’s Social Democrat-led government survived a no-confidence motion on Wednesday – but faced more turbulence outside parliament, where thousands of anti-corruption protesters gathered to demand Prime Minister Viorica Dancila’s resignation.

Tensions rose also in the legislature over new security regulations that banned opposition MPs from inviting their supporters and advisors into the building – while journalists’ access was restricted for the first time since the 1989 revolution to a limited press area.

The motion submitted by the opposition Liberals, and backed by the Save Romania Union and the nationalist Popular Movement Party, came 67 votes short of the 233 votes needed to bring down the government.

“You’re mystifying reality,” Dancila told the debate. “To you, a rise in income is a populist measure… there are many lies in this motion,” she added.

Her speech was interrupted several times by opposition MPs who chanted “Resignation! Resignation!” and put up a banner reading, “We fight until the end for Romania.”

The Liberals failed to win the support of the main ethnic Hungarian party in parliament, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, which holds 21 seats.

It did win the support of MPs gathered around former Social Democrat leader Victor Ponta, who left the ruling party to form his own political faction, but their votes were not enough.

Social Democrat MPs did not vote, as the party wanted to avoid the risk of any of its MPs supporting the no-confidence motion.

Over 70 Social Democrat supporters were allowed into the balconies of the chamber, as the law allows citizens to observe debates.

 Opposition MPs protesting during Prime Minister Viorica Dancila’s speech. Photo: Octav Ganea/Inquam Photos

But their presence angered opposition MPs, after the ruling coalition banned MPs from Save Romania Union – the third force in parliament – from bringing their own guests into the complex, including their advisors.

Among those who were denied access to the chamber was Save Romania Union’s communications advisor, Ioana Lupea.

Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea “is not allowing me to go inside the parliament. He gave the order that no USR guest can enter the building. The Social Democrats’ guests are allowed in, I just saw a group of women happily entering the building. So today I will work from the hallway. I have this before ’89 feeling. Really bad,” she wrote on Facebook.

The new regulations were adopted on Tuesday by the leadership of the two chambers, after Save Romania Union MPs allowed a group of anti-corruption protesters to enter parliament on June 20 and stage a sit-in against the ruling party’s plan to relax anti-graft legislation.

Journalists’ movement and access were also restricted to a press area, several reporters told BIRN. The move is unprecedented as journalists were formerly free to move around and interview MPs.

News website G4media.ro said a leading Social Democrat MP, Eugen Nicolicea, had told reporters that their access was restricted because their presence bothered the meetings.

“You have all the facilities you need on the ground floor. There is a press room, you have what you need there. But you’re sitting here, lying around like in a bus station,” he told the media.

Nicolicea also submitted a proposal on Wednesday to punish MPs who are deemed undisciplined with 20 to 30 day suspensions. The move was a response to the fact that Save Romania Union MPs have often staged protests during debates.

Meanwhile, about 5,000 protesters, many of them Save Romania Union supporters, rallied in Izvor Park, right next to parliament, to demand Dancila’s resignation.

Protesters organized on social media, and several companies announced they gave their employees the day off to join the protests. </s> BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s left-leaning Social Democrats easily won parliamentary elections a year after a major anti-corruption drive forced the last Socialist prime minister from power, near-final results released Monday showed.

Election authorities said that with 99 percent of the votes from Sunday’s balloting counted, the Social Democratic Party had won about 46 percent and the center-right Liberals were second with over 20 percent.

The chairman of the Social Democrats, Liviu Dragnea, spoke Sunday after exit polls showed similar results. “There should be no doubt who won the elections,” he said. “Romanians want to feel at home in their own country and I want Romania to be a good home for all Romanians.”

Dragnea got a two-year suspended prison sentence in April for voter fraud for inflating voter numbers in a July 2012 referendum to impeach then-President Traian Basescu.

Under a 2001 law, Dragnea is not allowed to be appointed prime minister because of the conviction, and last week he said the party would not try to change the law. However, he told Romania TV Monday that he had not ruled himself out as a future premier.

President Klaus Iohannis has said he will not nominate a premier who has been convicted or who is a subject of a corruption investigation.

Dragnea’s party has pushed a populist agenda, but on Sunday he sought to strike a conciliatory note, saying he wanted to end bitter divisions in the country.

The Save Romania Union, a new party that ran on an anti-corruption ticket, finished third, allowing it to enter Parliament. A party needs 5 percent of the votes to enter the bicameral legislature. Votes from parties that do not make the threshold are redistributed.

Turnout for the election was low, at just 39.5 percent, more than two percentage points less than the 2012 parliamentary elections.

Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, already the subject of a corruption probe, resigned after mass protests following a nightclub fire in October 2015 that killed 64 people. Romania is currently run by a government of technocrats headed by Premier Dacian Ciolos, a former European Union agriculture commissioner.

The country of about 19 million people is one of the poorest in the 28-member European Union and perceived as one of the most corrupt.
Being forced into opposition a year earlier, by the resignation of Prime Minister Victor Ponta amid the Colectiv nightclub fire tragedy, the Social Democratic Party returns to government following a landslide victory in last Sunday's parliamentary elections.