Romania's centre-left government led by Victor Ponta on Tuesday easily survived the motion of no-confidence initiated by the main opposition National Liberal Party.

The motion was defeated at a plenary session of the Parliament, as it garnered 207 votes in favour, far from the required minimum of 278 votes, half plus 1 in the 554-seat bicameral parliament.

Vasile Blaga, one of the Liberals' two co-chairman, said that at the debate on their motion that the prime minister should have resigned immediately after he was placed under criminal investigation, arguing that a man should have resigned when he reaches a personal situation that harms his position in the state, his country and each citizen.

The MPs of the opposition Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania voted for the motion, with union leader Hunor Kelemen stressing before the voting that they will vote against the Government, but "our vote mustn't be considered a vote in support of the censure motion."

According to him, the motion of censure, as an institutional and democratic instrument, must be aimed against the Government but not a single person and that it should not be against some alleged acts that have no relation with the work of the Government.

It was the second no-confidence vote of this year and the fourth for Ponta's cabinet.

The censure motion was a failure for the National Liberal Party, Ponta said after the motion was rejected by the Parliament.

"The important thing is, from now on and until February, when constitutionally the opposition could file another censure motion, I've decided to pull myself as much as possible out of all these useless political battles," he said, adding that "I'm ready not only to use all my energy for governing, but also to explain, to answer, to say what I have done as a prime minister alongside my governmental team and next to the ruling coalition."

Prime Minister Victor Ponta was sent to court on Sept. 17 by the National Anti-corruption Directorate which in early June opened a criminal investigation against the incumbent prime minister, who allegedly received unjustifiable payments and benefits from the legal firm of fellow Social Democrat Senator Dan Sova, when they were both lawyers.

The case put the young prime minister in an awkward situation, and the opposition has been stepping up attacks against him, calling for his resignation.

In mid-August, Ponta announced he would suspend himself from all his leading positions in the ruling Social Democrat Party, but explicitly asserted he was not stepping down from the post of prime minister.