The empty armchair at the Victoria Palace

It happened. Practically two months have passed since the motion of censure and there is no hero in sight to take the necessary steps and, on top of that, to have the political support to resolve the complicated task of taking the seat at the Victoria Palace. Honestly, none of the attempts in these two months have been credible. After all, the investiture vote is more of a ceremony than a vote. If you go there and don't know in advance what will come out, it means you haven't done your homework.

So we can ask, whose failure is it? Some consider it the President's, but, although from that position you have a certain capacity to direct the process, there are clear limits to his power in this regard. Of course, some would argue that the President of the Republic must have informal levers to bring the rival forces in Parliament to a common denominator, but, given our political situation since 2024, I believe it would be at least science fiction to expect such a thing.

After all, we must look at the parties and Parliament, because that is where the key to the whole story lies. This parliament is in its second year of mandate (I refer to this year, 2026) extremely questionable. Let's look at the problem strictly from a technical point of view. Let's not be interested for now in the motivations, the disagreements on political issues, whether they are substantive or not, etc. Let's not look at political statements, nor at the image that each actor involved tries to project, nor at public opinion, if possible.

In short, the first half of the parliamentary year 2026 has brought two major crises, both so long that we have almost gotten used to each episode in part. The first refers to the fact that it took the parties, although they were in a coalition motivated by ideals as grand as possible, three months to approve the budget. This is in no way acceptable and cannot be justified no matter how reasonable some of the positions of the parties involved in the negotiation were. Somehow there should be precise deadlines for a few things like this. The political system in Romania has been dealing for years more with electoral campaigns and elections than with adopting laws and governing. Especially since, I bet, this huge delay in adopting the budget for 2026 will justify delays in the following years, of course. And here we see how the Parliament's inability to negotiate and adopt absolutely necessary measures blocks an entire country. And it adds, of course, to our public's love for Parliament, the most unloved political institution in the country for decades now. Not that it would be a problem, but the negative perception of Parliament overlaps in places with the negative perception of the democratic system and we are already risking a national security problem here.

Then, after the motion of censure, the two months in which a majority could not be created and a government reached. Well, wait, some will say, other countries have also been without a government and no one died. Well yes, they have been without hot water and electricity for thousands of years. There was no problem. But you see, those societies without hot water and electricity didn't pay those bills either. We kind of pay these institutions. And after five months out of six (three for the budget, two for the government) negotiations have been held without remarkable results, now comes the parliamentary vacation, right? How is it not strange for anyone that Parliament goes on vacation and leaves us without a government, we are no longer surprised by anything.

And no, I don't think it's the time for early elections. It would cost a lot and would not solve any of the real problems of Romanian society. After all, the current Parliament also came out of elections, it wasn't put in place by reptiles. Our electoral math, based on three major parties, is a very harmful thing. And this is not the first time this has happened to us. We have had such configurations before. Next week I will tell you what I think would be the solution.