Siegfried Mureșan received a potted mint plant before the investiture vote: “So you’ll have something to rub at the Brussels”

Designated Prime Minister Siegfried Mureșan failed to secure an investiture vote in Parliament on Wednesday, following a session in which Senator Ninel Peia gave him a mint plant in an ironic gesture presented as a “gift.”

The moment took place during a joint plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, after Mureșan, a PNL member of the European Parliament, presented his government program and parliamentary groups expressed their positions. Ninel Peia, a senator from the PACE group, went to the area where the designated prime minister and the proposed cabinet members were seated and handed him the plant.

Peia said he had given Mureșan the mint so that he would “have something to rub in Brussels,” suggesting that he would return to the Belgian capital after the government was rejected. Mureșan accepted the plant with a smile, smelled it and placed it beside his folder. Shortly afterward, Liberal Mircea Abrudean, proposed as Interior Minister, took the pot and hid it under the table.

In the vote, the cabinet proposed by Siegfried Mureșan received 182 votes in favor, 15 against and one invalid vote. At least 233 votes were required for investiture. The PACE group did not support the government.