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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 21-27/09/2008 |
| (2008-09-26) |
| Last updated: 2008-09-29 14:53 EET |
Uninominal voting has again grabbed the limelight of the political scene in Romania. Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu has given assurances that the government took all the measures so that the elections might take place on November the 30th, according to the uninominal voting system, as they had pledged before Parliament. Tariceanu said it was regrettable that parties, which in the past fiercely campaigned for the introduction of this voting system, were now complying with double standards. In spite of such moves, Tariceanu believes uninominal voting will be a success for Romania and its citizens.
“It is according to the will of the Romanians, who want to vote people, not lists. Of all the actions taken against it, I would like to mention the initiative of the shameful coalition, as we have called it, the alliance between the Liberal-Democrat Party and the Greater Romania Party, to postpone by any means possible the elections and the introduction of the uninominal voting system, which they think punishes them.”
The decision, which is delimiting the uninominal constituencies for the parliamentary elections stays in force at least until November the 11th, when a court ruling on the file has to be given. A decision has been made by the Court of Appeal in Bucharest, which has rejected as ungrounded the contest filed by the Greater Romania Party. The party’s vice president, Lucian Bolcas said the party would make an appeal while a poll conducted by Metromedia Transylvania shows that 51% of the Romanians are aware that the uninominal voting system will be applied in Romania at the November elections, whereas 37% don’t know anything about that.
Romania’s President Traian Basescu has stated readiness to cooperate after the November elections with any government able to cope with the challenges of present-day Romania and which is not going to meet the oligarchy’s interests. Addressing Parliament, president Basescu has tackled all the issues of political and social interest, such as education, health-care or infrastructure. Although Romania’s entry into the EU has created a lot of opportunities for the Romanians, most of the citizens don’t benefit from these opportunities yet, Basescu said. According to the president, Romania is a country of contrasts, which has two major deficiencies.
“As we have failed to allocate resources efficiently, we haven’t succeeded in consolidating the democratic state. On the other hand, as we do not have enough political, economic and social democracy, we aren’t able to efficiently allocate and use resources.”
The president has drawn attention to the risk for Romania not to adopt the euro in 2014, due to its lax budget and fiscal policies and to lose its credibility before the European Commission, because the Parliamentarians are trying to block the corruption files of some former and incumbent ministers. Basescu has also referred to the accomplishments of Prime Minister Tariceanu’s government.
“Almost two years since the country’s entry into the European Union, headway has been made in many fields. Romania has reported a steady economic growth for the ninth consecutive year.”
Romania has a new labour minister, who replaces Paul Pacuraru, currently under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate on alleged corruption charges and who stepped down after president Basescu had suspended him. The new minister and former head of the National Pension Office, Mariana Câmpeanu, said she intended to continue the projects initiated by her predecessor.
“First and foremost, we intend to implement the increase and recalculation of pensions for people included in the first and second labour categories. I started these two projects jointly with minister Pacuraru, I know them very well and will continue to implement them from my new position as minister. I cannot speak now about new projects as I’ll be in office only for two months . I have to assure the good functioning of this ministry and implement the governing programme as much as possible.”
The National Bank of Romania has decided to maintain the monetary policy interest rate at 10.25 %, after several successive increases. The mandatory minimum reserves of banks will remain at the present level. The National Bank of Romania said it would manage liquidities on the monetary market and monitor the evolution of the macro-economic indexes at domestic and international levels, so that it may boost the downward trend of the inflation rate. Pundits believe that we may witness a change in the tendency of changing the intervention interest rate, while the commercial banks’ interest rates might paradoxically increase for deposits both in the domestic and foreign currency.
Bucharest has recently launched campaigns for improving the image of the Romanian communities living in Spain and Italy, countries boasting the largest number of Romanians, 780 thousand and 1 million people respectively.
The main purpose of those campaigns, run under suggestive names like, ‘Hola Soy Rumano’ and ‘Piacere di conoscerti’ is to highlight the Romanians’ contribution to the economic development of the two states and raise the awareness of the locals. By the end of the year, Spanish and Italian mass-media will be broadcasting videos, documentaries and reports about the Romanians living in the two states.
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