|
RRI newsletter subcription
(e-mail address):
|
 |
Archives:
|
|
| THE PRESIDENT NOMINATES THE PRIME MINISTER 11/12/2008 |
| (2008-12-11) |
| Last updated: 2008-12-12 15:52 EET |
The suspense is over. President Traian Basescu has nominated for the position of prime minister the candidate of the pro-presidential Liberal Democratic Party, namely the party's first vice-president, Theodor Stolojan. Basescu said he wanted the prime minister to be a man capable to deal with the problems generated by the current economic crisis, a man with sufficient authority to be able to ensure the proper functioning of state institutions. The prime minister designate hopes to harmonise the positions of the Liberal Democratic Party and the left-wing Social Democratic Party and come up with a strategy to counteract the impact of the crisis. Also, he did not exclude the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians from talks about the formation of the new government, despite the Social Democrats’ opposition. The new cabinet may take office by the 22nd of December. Theodor Stolojan explains the goals of his cabinet:
“If this cabinet is approved by Parliament, and I’m convinced it will be, two things need to be done as soon as possible: work out the budget for 2009, in keeping with the government programme, and start a number of reforms that are essential for Romania’s progress: the reform of the education system, the public administration and the healthcare system, as well as other reforms needed in this country.”
A respected economist, Theodor Stolojan, aged 65, for the first time held the position of prime minister between October 1991 and November 1992, when Social Democrat Ion Iliescu was Romania’s president. Before that, Stolojan had held various positions with bodies coordinating the privatisation of state-owned companies. Once his term as prime minister ended in 1992, he started working for the World Bank as an expert. In 1996, he backed Ion Iliescu’s run for a new presidential term. In 2000, however, he ran for president against Iliescu as a member of the National Liberal Party, whose leader he eventually became in 2002. A year later, Stolojan’s party made an alliance with the Democratic Party run by Traian Basescu.
A presidential candidate in 2004 , he suddenly withdrew from the race for health reasons. Traian Basescu took his place as the alliance’s candidate and after his victory he appointed Stolojan his aide. The latter became more and more critical of the National Liberal Party leader and prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the party went into a deep crisis. Eventually, the splinter group around Theodor Stolojan broke away with the Liberal Party and establised their own party, which later joined the Democrats to form today’s Liberal Democratic Party. Speaking about Stolojan’s nomination, the Social Democrats have implied that they have accepted it as a prerogative of the president and because they didn’t want to reach a standstill in the negotiations with the Liberal Democrats over the formation of the government.
The Liberals, who are Stolojan’s strongest opponents, see him as the president’s man, as someone docile and easy to handle who lacks the moral and political authority to run a coalition government in these trying times. The Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians sees his nomination as the right thing at the right time. “The crisis prime minister”, writes the daily Evenimentul Zilei commenting on Stolojan’s nomination. The daily notes that while he paved the way for Basescu’s coming to power when he pulled out of the race for president, Basescu now had to return the favour. The daily Romania Libera agrees, writing that president Traian Basescu completed the final stage of the switch promised in 2004, when Theodor Stolojan handed him over the candidacy to presidency.
|
|
| |
WMA |
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
MP3 |
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
AAC+ |
|
|
48kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
 Historical mascot of
RRI |
| |
© 1999 - 2011 Copyright Radio Romania International |
|
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again