Senators of the opposition Social Democratic Party-PSD and the far-right Greater Romania Party-PRM have voted against a law on electing Romania’s future representatives in the European Parliament, which fell in the upper chamber as many MPs of the governing coalition opted to stay away from the vote.

The debates were marked by the neighs of Hungarian Democrats-UDMR senators, who felt offended that a representative of the PRM called the Hungarian language a “language of horses”.

The law fell despite PSD and PRM parliamentarians had agreed with the draft legislation during talks in the specialized commission. The legislation needed the approval of 69 parliamentarians, but received the votes of 54 people and the abstention of another 29, with only 90 senators attending the procedure. Most abstentions belonged to the PSD and PRM MPs.

The former objected the final version of the draft because they wanted that Romanian MPs be elected via an uninominal vote, as PSD president Mircea Geoana put it. That comes despite list-based votes are used in European elections even in countries that apply the uninominal vote internally.

The latter objected to the access of Hungarian Democrats in the EP elections.