On September 15, Romania’s then-coalition government of democrat liberals and social democrats sought and gained a confidence vote in Parliament to enact a law on public sector wages, a law on education and a law reorganizing government agencies and state institutions to cut public spending to meet requirements the country signed up for when it secured an IMF-led bailout loan of nearly EUR20 billion.
The opposition at the time, made up of liberals and the Hungarian minority party, moved to oust the government over the adoption of the unitary pay law regulating public sector wages but their no-confidence motion was rejected in Parliament.
Liberals challenged the legitimacy of all three laws at the Constitutional Court, which has since postponed rulings.
On Wednesday, the Court said it is postponing rulings on all three laws until December 9 citing the complexity of the challenges to their legitimacy.
The three laws sparked wide political and social controversy as they were being drafted and disputes escalated when they were finally enacted with the Parliament’s confidence vote.
Romania holds presidential elections on November 22 and a runoff on December 6 if none of the candidates secure a majority of votes.