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Romania is currently in the interesting situation of its government having initiated a motion of no confidence against itself. Usually, such things are done by the opposition in order to get a chance at taking over or at least to get into a more favorable position by weakening its adversary.

Is there a precedent for similar events? If so, were there major differences in the circumstances or motives?

vsz
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    Could you describe the circumstances in Romania in a little more detail? – James K Jun 16 '17 at 21:17
  • Or give a link to the story – mikado Jun 17 '17 at 13:37
  • It seems it didn't make the headlines in international newspapers, so here is one link: http://www.business-review.eu/news/romanias-ruling-coalition-to-hold-vote-of-no-confidence-against-grindeanu-government-140792 . i don't know its affiliation, but it's easy to search for others. Just search for "Romania vote of no confidence" and you will see plenty of reports. Just don't confuse it with the one from February, when it was done by the opposition. now it is done by the ruling coalition. – vsz Jun 17 '17 at 13:57
  • I remember it was big news when the Communist Party is the former USSR dissolved itself, but not quite the same thing. –  Jun 18 '17 at 12:51
  • @SteveMelnikoff : did you realize that the question you linked is the same as this one, and it was asked later? Check the time stamps. (although the other question describes the topic in more detail) – vsz Jun 21 '17 at 15:52

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If you mean a situation when the prime minister, asks the parliament for the vote of confidence, yes it happened few times in Poland. Usually in a situation when because some members of parliament moved between the political parties or left them becoming unaligned and it is not clear if the government has the majority. Other reason maybe when within the ruling party grows internal opposition toward the party leader, who is also the prime minister.

I think it happened few times in Poland (votes supporting, against, abstained, not present):

  • 2003 (prime minister - Leszek Miller) 236:213:0:11
  • 2004 (Marek Belka) 234:218:0:8
  • 2012 (Donald Tusk) 233:219:0:8
  • 2014 (Donald Tusk, second time) 237:203:0:20
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    Yup. It's not uncommon at all, many countries have the option of the vote of confidence asked by the leader of the government him/herself, especially if they don't have the power to directly declare reelections. Happened in Germany in 2005 too, when chancellor Schröder invoked the "Vertrauensfrage" and deliberately asked his party to reject him, in the hope to get reaffirmation in the new election (It didn't work). – Annatar Jun 22 '17 at 07:16
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In Italy is so common we don't even notice any more.

For example, this article from 2014 states that the then Renzi government put a "confidence clause" on 55 proposed laws in 9 months. Note that it is the government itself that puts such a clause in place.

This other one compares the % of laws passed with a confidence clause against the total of laws passed under the said government in the last 5 governments. None is at 0%.

A confidence clause makes the approval of the law contingent to the approval of the government. If the law is not approved, the government falls.

Federico
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  • This assumes that I correctly understood the question. Should this not be the case, I'll delete this post. – Federico Jun 21 '17 at 13:30