The Young People’s Party (POT) announced on Thursday that 161 lawmakers from POT, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) and SOS had signed for the suspension of President Klaus Iohannis, and the signatures were submitted to the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.

„The initiative of the Young People’s Party to suspend Klaus Iohannis is supported by 161 signatures from the POT, AUR, SOS lawmakers. The signatures were registered today with the office of the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. The initiative was signed by all POT, AUR and 39 SOS parliamentarians,” POT said in a statement.

POT national chair Anamaria Gavrila said that her party initiated the procedure because Romania „must preserve its democratic trajectory.”

„We have registered the initiative to suspend Klaus Iohannis. It is a POT initiative that was also joined by lawmakers of the AUR party and of the SOS party. There are a total of 161 signatures. At least 155 were needed to trigger this suspension procedure. I wanted you to see that we are not sitting idle, we are moving, we are trying, together with AUR, to obtain a debate in an extraordinary emergency session of this initiative,” said Gavrila.

Under the Romanian Constitution, in case of committing serious offences by which he violates the provisions of the Constitution, the President of Romania may be suspended from office by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, in a joint session, with the vote of the majority of deputies and senators, that is 234, after consulting the Constitutional Court. The President may give explanations to Parliament regarding the alleged violations.

The proposal for suspension from office may be initiated by at least one third of the number of MPs and senators, which means 155 lawmakers.

AUR on Tuesday called for an extraordinary session of Parliament between January 20 and 24.

AGERPRES