Romanian Premier Faces No-Confidence Motion as Coalition Cracks

(Bloomberg) -- Romania’s government will face a no-confidence motion filed by one of the junior members of the ruling coalition after Prime Minister Florin Citu approved a controversial spending program that they objected to. 

After repeated clashes with the Liberal Party that leads the alliance, junior member USR Plus decided to file the motion against Citu over objections to a 50 billion-lei ($12 billion) development program for local authorities.  

The departure leaves Citu, the country’s ninth prime minister in the past decade, without a majority in parliament. USR’s motion is co-signed by the newly-formed extremist party AUR and may also be supported by the Social Democrats, the largest opposition party. 

“Our intention is to continue in the current governing coalition but we are following the parliamentary procedure to be able to change the prime minister, who lost our trust,” USR Plus co-leader Dacian Ciolos said late on Friday. 

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