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| THE ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT TOPPLED 14/10/2009 |
| (2009-10-14) |
| Last updated: 2009-10-15 14:43 EET |
The minority Liberal Democratic government in Bucharest fell with the first snow, less than two months before the presidential elections. The outcome of the no-confidence vote in Parliament was predictable. The pro-presidential Liberal Democrats are paying the price of the break up of their coalition with the Social Democrats, which occurred earlier this month, and both parties continue to blame each other for the collapse. Isolated on the political stage, the Liberal Democrats could not save the government alone, which faces an opposing front made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania.
The Boc cabinet will remain in Romania’s post-Communist history as the government with the shortest term in office and the first to be toppled following a censure motion. PM Boc believes the government is the victim of MPs who are facing the loss of privileges, since their pensions were threatened by the new pension law that the government took responsibility for. Its adversaries retorted by accusing the PM of populism and demagoguery. The opposition accused the Boc cabinet of aggression against the legislators by abusing their right to issue executive orders, some of which have been ruled unconstitutional, and of also abusing the procedure of calling for a vote of confidence.
President Traian Basescu, on the other hand, praised Emil Boc for his courage in undertaking the reforms needed for modernising the state, and criticised the Social Democrats for putting electoral interests ahead of the national interest. Now the president has to appoint a new prime minister, after consulting parties in Parliament. While the Liberal Democrats continue to support Emil Boc, the majority that took down the government is proposing a cabinet made up of technocrats, led by an independent, able to take measures to weather the crisis and provide for fair and transparent presidential elections. The Boc government was accused by their former Social Democratic partners of planning to rig the November 22nd presidential election in favour of the incumbent President Basescu. The daily Cotidianul headlines: “After six months of being treated like movie extras and being snubbed, MPs exact their revenge”.
The general feeling among the press, however, is that there are no reasons for rejoicing. The daily Ziua remarks: “The Social Democrats and Liberals managed to take down the Boc government, but are late in accepting responsibility for taking the reins of power in the midst of the crisis”. That newspaper notes that the political fight was won, but this left many things in ruin – there is no working government right before winter, no 2009 budget law submitted, and no IMF talks, considering that the IMF loan was supposed to salvage the free-falling economy. The daily Gandul notes that the National Bank had to intervene to keep the national currency from going down the drain, while international organisations upped Romania’s risk rating. As a result, Romania will have to face increasingly expensive loans. The daily Romania Libera predicts that “No matter who the new PM is, his mission will be short and tough”.
However, there is someone who could take the helm of government. The daily Evenimentul Zilei headlines: “The coalition against Basescu wants to go with Klaus Johannis”. The headline refers to the Mayor of Sibiu, the president of the German Democratic Front in Romania, who is a well-respected public figure for the way in which he ran the city that in 2007 was European Culture Capital. Johannis was proposed by National Liberal leader Crin Antonescu, and is supported by a makeshift coalition made up of Liberals, Social Democrats, and the Ethnic Hungarians Democratic Union.
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