In full campaign ahead of the November 22nd presidential election, Romania still has a caretaker government. The second interim PM designated by President Traian Basescu to form the government, Liberal Democrat Liviu Negoita, has finalised the list of new ministers; he enjoys the support of the pro-presidential Liberal Democratic Party and of the independents. His predecessor, Lucian Croitoru, failed in his attempt to pass through Parliament a new government made up of mainly former ministers of the Boc cabinet, which was removed following a no confidence vote in Parliament. Liviu Negoita’s list includes more or less the same persons, which is further grounds for it to be rejected by Parliament where the majority is formed by the leftist Social Democratic Party, the right wing Liberal Party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the representatives of the other national minorities; they favour as Romania’s future PM the current mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Johannis, an independent ethnic German Romanian citizen. Despite disagreements related to the appointment of a new PM, the Romanian MPs have unanimously passed the amendment of the law on the organisation and functioning of the government that should provide the legal framework allowing the Boc cabinet, which will be acting until a new government is formed, to introduce in Parliament the draft budget for 2010.

Also this week a new law took effect stipulating the re-organisation of certain public institutions and administrative bodies, the reduction of public spending, support for the business environment and the observance of the frame-accords signed with the European Commission and the IMF. The law provides for the closing down or fusion of several public institutions, and also for the reduction of expenses on personnel by forcing employees to take 8 days off without pay until the end of 2009. The draft law also stipulates that only the people whose pension does not exceed the average gross monthly salary can cumulate their pension with a salary received from state employment. According to the acting PM, Emil Boc, under this law, 112 government agencies will be dissolved, which means the dismissal of more than 9000 employees. Upset at the drop in income, added to the compulsory unpaid leave, state employees are getting ready for protests. The employees of the underground train system authority-METROREX have already staged a two-hour warning strike, and say that unless their claims are met they will carry on with protests for an unlimited period of time. They call for raises worth 26%, an impossible claim this year considering the economic crisis, says the government, which is trying hard to find solutions to cover the billions of Euros that Romania no longer receives this year from international financial institutions, which are waiting for the situation on the Romanian political scene to clear up again.

The number of swine flu cases has gone up in Romania. Most cases have been registered among high-school students. Several primary schools and high-schools in Bucharest and Iasi, in the north-east, which are the most affected areas, have been temporarily closed. The number of contamination cases with the AH1N1 flu virus went over 1,000 this week, scores of new cases being reported every day. The Romanian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a Romanian national died in Austria because of the new flu virus. A national vaccination campaign will start on November the 26th.

Romania’s President, Traian Basescu attended the ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary since the fall of Berlin Wall, an event which changed the political face of Europe. President Basescu has recalled that Romania is the only communist country where the switch to democracy was not made peacefully, but after incredible bloodshed, with over 1,600 people loosing their lives in the 1989 Revolution. Among the personalities attending the festivities in Berlin were the former Soviet leader Mihail Gorbatchev, the former leader of the “Solidarity” Polish trade union, Lech Walesa, who later became Poland’s President, Kremlin leader Dmitri Medvedev, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In a video message sent from Washington, US President Barack Obama said that on November the 9th 1989, the inhabitants of Berlin and Germans in general conveyed a clear message, rejecting tyranny and choosing freedom.

After years of tension, which culminated with the introduction by the Moldovan communist regime of mandatory visas for Romanian citizens in April 2009, the relationships between Romania and the Republic of Moldova are normalizing. Prime Minister Vlad Filat , who paid a visit to Bucharest on Friday, said the new leadership in Chishinau wants to have a privileged relationship and a strategic partnership with Romania. Actually, the first measures taken by the Moldovan government is to lift the obligation for travel visas for Romanian citizens. Several bilateral agreements have been signed in Bucharest, after they had been postponed for years by the former ruling power in Chishinau, among which the agreement on small border traffic, and a bilateral agreement on border crossing points between Romania and the Republic of Moldova.