Newly elected Chamber of Deputies speaker Valeriu Zgonea presided over the meeting. After the document is read out, the Constitutional Court must issue a standpoint on the matter before the request may be debated and put to the vote in Parliament.
Under the Constitution, if the impeachment request is approved by the legislature, a referendum on removing the president from office will be held within 30 days.
Article 95 of the Constitution states that the president may be removed from office by the Parliament with a majority of votes, after consulting the Constitutional Court, if the head of state has violated constitutional provisions.
On Wednesday, the ruling Social Liberal Union submitted with the Parliament’s standing bureaus a request to start impeachment proceedings against Basescu, whom it accuses of having breached the Constitution repeatedly.
According to the impeachment request, Basescu violated the Constitution when he said he would not name an USL prime minister even if the Union obtained absolute majority in Parliament. The head of state repeatedly breached the separation of powers principle and the independence of the judiciary. He put pressure on Constitutional Court judges and encouraged the nonobservance of Constitutional Court decisions, reads the document.
USL accuses the president of having abandoned his constitutional role of mediator.
The bill to revise the fundamental law, sponsored by Basescu, is unconstitutional and the head of state also breached Constitution revision procedures, reads the document.