BUCHAREST, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, president of the Romanian Senate, announced his resignation at the Senate's plenary meeting on Monday after the party he led withdrew from the ruling coalition last week.
"I did not cling to this position ... I will continue to involve myself politically," Tariceanu told the plenary.
"I rose to this position backed by a political alliance and it seems natural for me to break away from this position once that alliance has ended its existence," he concluded.
He told the press before the plenary that he was going to give up his position in the Senate because it "seems fair and natural" to do so after his party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, withdrew from the coalition with the ruling Social Democratic Party.
The Social Democrats, who hold the largest number of seats in the Senate, said that they would support former Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu, a senator also from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, as Popescu-Tariceanu's successor.
By doing so, the Social Democrats tried to secure greater support from Parliament so that in the near future, when the opposition parties in Parliament decide to impeach the government, they would be able to secure majority support in a Parliament vote.
Romania's governing coalition broke down a week ago, as the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats decided to withdraw from the coalition led by Viorica Dancila, who is also leader of the Social Democratic Party.
The move means that the current cabinet has lost its majority in Parliament and became a minority government. The Social Democrats would now need 29 supporting votes in Parliament to ensure majority status. Support from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats appears to be particularly important, as well as support from the smaller parties, the group of national minorities and some independent MPs.
Analysts here say that the main reason behind the breakdown of the coalition is that the Social Democrats had insisted on launching their own candidate in this November's presidential elections, rejecting the proposal by their minor ruling partner to launch a joint candidate.
The Social Democrats won the parliamentary elections at the end of 2016 and subsequently formed the two-party coalition government. Dancila became the third prime minister of the coalition government in January 2018 and she assumed the party's top position in late May this year after her predecessor, Liviu Dragnea, had been sentenced to prison.
The new president of the Senate will be elected next Wednesday. Until then the institution's Vice President, Serban Valeca of the Social Democratic Party, will serve as the Senate's interim leader.
According to the Senate's rules, its president is elected by secret ballot. Each parliamentary group can make a single proposal. The candidate who receives majority support from the senators present in the first round of the vote will become the Senate's new president.
