Romanian President Traian Basescu faced an impeachment vote Friday in a spiralling political crisis that has brought warnings from Western powers that the country's democracy is under threat.
Two decades after Romania emerged from communist dictatorship, it has been thrown into turmoil by a bitter feud between centre-left Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his arch-rival, the centre-right Basescu.
Western powers have voiced fears that Ponta's coalition government, which took office only in May, has been eroding democratic checks and balances in its campaign to oust Basescu.
This week, Ponta's ruling Liberal Social Union (USL) coalition has fired the speakers of both houses of parliament and the ombudsman and threatened to sack judges of the Constitutional Court.
The United States and European Union as well as France, Germany, the Council of Europe and several rights groups, including Freedom House and the Helsinki Committee, have all expressed concern.
"The rule of law, the democratic checks and balances and the independence of the judiciary are cornerstones of the European democracy and indispensable for mutual trust within the European Union," warned the European Commission.
The political crisis in one of Europe's poorest countries has seen the leu currency nosedive in recent days.
Ponta has sought to allay Western fears, pledging to travel to Brussels next week to "give assurances" to the bloc which Romania joined in 2007.
Romanian lawmakers were set to vote in an afternoon session on a motion to impeach Basescu over claims that he improperly assumed the powers of the prime minister when he announced drastic austerity cuts in 2010.
Romania, then badly hit by recession, agreed to tough belt-tightening -- including unpopular public sector wage and benefit cuts -- in return for a multi-billion-dollar bailout from the European Union and IMF.
Any move to impeach Basescu, if approved by the parliament, would have to be submitted to a referendum within 30 days. His second and final mandate would otherwise run until late 2014.
Basascu, speaking in parliament on Friday, rejected the charges, and said the campaign against him had violated the rule of law and put at risk "the stability and reputation of the country".
He accused the USL of trying to "control all the levers of the state, especially the judiciary".
Ponta's cabinet sparked widespread concern when on Wednesday it approved a decree barring the Constitutional Court from ruling on parliamentary decisions -- removing a possible obstacle to Basescu's impeachment.
The court had made a rare statement complaining of "virulent attacks" against some of its judges whom the government was threatening to sack.
The government withdrew its complaints against the judges but then adopted an emergency order curbing the court's powers.
Other controversial moves have included sacking the opposition speakers of both houses of parliament and replacing the ombudsman -- who has the sole power to contest government decrees and emergency orders -- with a USL member.
The Constitutional Court judged Friday that Basescu had indeed committed some breaches of his prerogatives but no violations of the constitution.
Ponta's government had given the top court 24 hours to give an opinion on seven charges against him.
Germany has voiced "deep concern," saying "the Romanian Constitutional Court's independence and ability to take action must not be questioned."
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert warned Berlin would "closely consult" with its EU partners on Romania's bid for full membership of the visa-free Schengen zone, which is up for review in September.
Ponta granted that Bucharest's partners have "legitimate concerns" but insisted Romania "will remain a stable country in which the rule of law, the constitution, European and international standards will be respected."
The turmoil comes days after a scandal for Ponta, 39, who was found to have plagiarised parts of his PhD thesis.