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| TH WEEK IN REVIEW 02/08/2008-08/08/2008 |
| (2008-06-06) |
| Last updated: 2008-06-09 14:43 EET |
This week's highlight in Romania has been the first round of local elections. Held on June 1st, after a relatively quiet campaign, the ballot brought three parties to the forefront. The left-wing opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD), the pro-presidential Liberal Democratic Party (PDL, made up of former ruling partners of the Liberals) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) are significantly ahead of the other parties in Romania. The largest number of county council president positions, for the first time subject to uninominal voting, of local councillor seats and of mayor seats were won by PSD, followed by PD-L. The latter ranks first by number of county councillors, followed closely by the PSD. Scores of complaints have been filed with the central electoral authority, some of which called for the cancellation of votes in several communes. A decision has already been issued to repeat the first round on June 15th where fraud was found, one the same day with the run-offs in places where none of the candidates for mayor managed to get over 50 per cent of the votes. Four out of Bucharest's six district mayors will be elected in a run-off, and so will the Mayor General, with the top ranking candidates, PSD dissenter Sorin Oprescu and the Liberal Democrat Vasile Blaga, former Interior Minister, to compete for office on June 15th.
The government has endorsed this week the national anti-corruption strategy for local public administration and the related action plans for 2008-2010. The documents were presented to European partners by Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu, during a Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting. Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu stated that an efficient and democratic administration was one of the key criteria which defines a European country. Which is why, he believes, a major priority for the government is to implement reforms that turn public administration more professional, transparent and responsible. The Prime Minister also explained what those documents are supposed to achieve:
“To bring local administration even closer to citizens, and to address the likelihood of corruption in sectors which the public perceives as vulnerable: public healthcare, education, tax authorities and local administration. So this is not only a response to one of the four criteria in the co-operation and checking mechanism, but also the achievement of a goal we have pursued since the beginning of our term in office, namely to improve the quality of public administration services.”
“Romania has the political will to adopt the Euro currency within the deadline we have set, the year 2014”. This was the assurance provided by President Traian Basescu in Frankfurt, Germany, at the 10 year anniversary celebration of the European Central Bank. Recalling the efforts involved in imposing severe fiscal discipline, the head of state reiterated Romania’s conviction that a stable and healthy economy is the main condition for the prosperity of its citizens. In Bucharest, the National Prognosis Commission published the long term spring prognosis, and the estimates are optimistic. Economic growth in Romania will be over 5% for the next 12 years, and the GDP will almost triple by 2020, reaching 440 billion Euro. Romania’s trade deficit will slowly go down, as exports balance imports, and the average gross monthly salary will go up an estimated 166%, reaching 1133 Euro. A Reuters poll in 19 countries of Central and Eastern Europe puts Romania in second place, overtaken only by Russia, in terms of how attractive the business environment is.
A verdict in the ‘money suitcase’ scandal in Romanian football: Steaua, the new runner up champion, and Universitatea Cluj were penalized seven and six points respectively. Also, Steaua’s tycoon financier Gigi Becali, and the president of the Cluj team, Anton Dobos, were banned from stadiums for the next two years. Gigi Becali is thought to have given 1.7 million dollars in bribes to the players from Cluj to get at least a draw against CFR on May 7th, allowing Steaua to win the championship. However, Becali claims that the money he and five of his associates were carrying on the last day of the championship, in Cluj, where the decisive game was being played, were supposed to be for a real estate deal. Steaua is the most popular team in Romania, has won the most domestic trophies, and was the first Soviet block team to win, in the 1980s, the Champions’ Cup and the European Super cup.
Former King of Romania, Mihai the first, who is 87 years old, accompanied by the royal family, returned this week to his family’s estates known as Peleş Castle for the first time in 60 years, and more than a year since the property was returned to him by the state. For decades, the castle was a museum. The former king said that ‘Romania is undergoing a historical and identity reconstruction’, and assured everyone that his castle’s gates will always be open to Romanians, where they will find a family that ‘gives meaning to the nation’. The castle was built between 1873 and 1914, by King Carol the first of Hohenzollern, and was fully financed by him. After King Mihai was forced to abdicate in 1947, he went to Switzerland, and the communist regime confiscated all his properties. He came back to Romania for the first time in 1997. King Mihai is the only monarch alive to have ruled during WWII.
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