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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 24-30/08/2009 |
| (2009-08-28) |
| Last updated: 2009-08-31 15:53 EET |
The Romanian government has started the procedures for the organization of the presidential election. The election will most likely take place on November 22nd and if none of the candidates gets 50 percent plus one of the votes, a runoff will be held on December 6th. According to Minister for Relations with Parliament, Victor Ponta, the ruling coalition made up of the leftist Social-Democratic Party, the PSD and the right wing Liberal Democratic Party, the PD-L, have agreed on those dates; next week, liberal-democrat Prime Minister Emil Boc will promote the law establishing the dates of the ballot. Political parties attach great importance to the presidential election; proof of this is the fact that although there are about 100 days to go until the election, it appears as though the election campaign has already kicked off. The reason of this greater interest is that the future president can change the balance of power, appointing another prime minister. The prevailing opinion is that if the five-year term goes to incumbent president Traian Basescu, who has not announced his candidacy for the time being, or to the president of the Senate, Mircea Geoana, the social-democrat candidate, either the PSD or the PD-L will be excluded from the government.
Set up to help the country overcome the crisis, as representatives of the two parties have claimed, the ruling coalition made up of political parties, which rather seem to share the common desire to be in power, has repeatedly left the impression that it is about to break up, following continual accusations on both sides. The latest subject dividing the PSD and the PD-L is the Udrea Commission, looking into the way in which liberal-democrat Minister of Tourism Elena Udrea has spent public money to promote Romania’s image. Invoking an unauthorized recording of the parliamentary commission carried by the media, Elena Udrea, close to president Traian Basescu, has challenged certain members of the commission, members of the PSD and the National Liberal Party, the PNL, accusing them of aiming to create a criminal record for her, thus dealing a blow to the head of state too. Credited by opinion polls with the greatest chances of winning the elections due this autumn, with 38% of the predicted vote is Traian Basescu, according to a barometer commissioned by the PD-L – the party Basescu used to lead. However, he has less supporters than in 2007, when 70% of voters in the referendum for the president’s impeachment voted for him to stay in office. His image has been eroded, especially in recent months, a contribution being made by the cases of Tourism Minister, Elena Udrea and of former Minister of Youth and Sport, Monica Iacob-Ridzi, currently under criminal investigation for the way in which she ordered that a very large sum of money be spent for the celebration of Youth Day on May 2nd. In recent days, the president has been confronted with another problem, after the media disclosed the involvement of his brother, Mircea, in a company carrying out arms-related activities, whose shareholders were people involved in equipping the army. Furthermore, one of Mircea Basescu’s companies was allegedly involved in operations conducive to arms sales to terrorist organizations, the information being denied by the Basescu family. Coming back to the presidential election, let us also mention liberal candidate, Crin Antonescu , who ranks third in the polls, after Mircea Geoana.
This week, discussions have continued in Bucharest on the single salary law for the public sector. Designed to overhaul the system, the law has not been finalized yet, although the negotiations have been going on for a few months now and the Romanian government has announced its intention to take responsibility for the new law in Parliament on September 2nd. The main bones of contention are the sums established under the hierarchical system, reduced twice by the Finance Ministry. Unionists say the situation is unacceptable and have threatened to stage street protests. The Prime Minister upholds that through the enforcement of the law, no state salary will be reduced and discrepancies will be done away with through the gradual increase of low salaries, so that by 2015, the ratio between the smallest and the biggest salary should be 1 to 15 as compared to 1 to 29 at the moment. Also, by 2015, the number of state employees, which is 1.4 million at present, is going to drop by 326,000, 150,000 of whom are to be made redundant in 2010, when the government plans to freeze the salaries of all employees in the public sector – another reason of the unionists’ discontent.
Some tens of thousands of people attended the first concert given by Madonna in Romania. Extended after the success it enjoyed in 2008, Sticky&Sweet Tour is considered the best sell-out tour of an artist in history. More than 2.3 million people in 58 cities attended Madonna’s show and record ticket sales were reported the world over last year.
Four Romanian football teams have qualified for the Europe League groups. Dinamo Bucharest managed to come back after a three nil defeat at home at the hands of Czech team Slovan Liberec, triumphing in the second leg of the match after extra time and a penalty shoot-out. Steaua Bucharest, CFR Cluj and FC Timisoara will also play in the Europe League groups. The holder of the national title, Unirea Urziceni, will play in the Champions’ League Group G.
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