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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 25-31/10/2010 |
| (2010-10-29) |
| Last updated: 2010-11-01 14:30 EET |
The Romanian Government, made up of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania and the National Union for the Progress of Romania managed to survive on Wednesday, when the no confidence motion filed by the Social – Democratic, Liberal and Conservative opposition failed to pass, getting only 219 votes against the 236 needed for the cabinet led by Emil Boc to be dismissed. For the first time, the motion triggered a boycott movement, organized by heads of MP groups within the ruling coalition. To prevent any problems during the voting, they forbade their MPs to go near the polls.
Though he won without being given a single favorable vote, PM Emil Boc could not hide his satisfaction: “I can say that reason has today prevailed over the populism and demagogy promoted by the opposition, which, unfortunately, can only come up with promises of no substance. From my point of view, the main concern is and will be people’s fate, and the way to overcome this difficult period as soon as possible, but without moving backwards and without compromising the measures we’ve taken so far, which are harsh in the short term, but fair in the medium and long run. That is why our concern remains overcoming the crisis and ensuring Romania’s development based on economic growth, not on loans and consumption.”
Disappointed with the outcome, the leader of the National Liberal Party, Crin Antonescu, admitted the opposition has serious limitations, but stressed the current government’s moral and political frailty: "That was the only possibility we had. The power, however, had the means to turn upstanding people into spineless creatures, tied to their benches. We live in a country headed by a government trusted by only 10% of the population, and with no support in Parliament, not even from their own majority.”
Legally speaking, the opposition still has some means at its disposal to fight back. The National Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party decided to file another no-confidence motion, against the new education law, which was long debated by Parliament and for which the Executive assumed responsibility. Disavowed by trade unions in the education sector, but to the liking of a part of civil society, which accused the lack of competitiveness of the Romanian education system, the law must pass the constitutionality test. Next week, the Constitutional Court will decide whether such an important draft law can be passed by responsibility taking alone, or whether it has to be voted on in parliament as well.
In the same week when the Bucharest authorities launched the so called ‘small justice reform’, meant to simplify judicial procedures and ensure the proper speed of trial by court, the organization Transparency International found that, for the first time in eight years, there has been a decline in the public perception of the fight against corruption. The perception index, obtained as a result of surveys conducted among business people and other specialists, places Romania on the 25th position among the 27 EU member states.
The director of Transparency International Romania, Victor Alistar, explained:“ What caused this downturn? First of all, anti-corruption policies were dropped. What was left was kept for propaganda, not to ensure the fairness of the mechanisms of power. Another element that led to the downturn of the index for Romania is that there is no transparency in any of the medium and long term governmental policies, and even in the short term ones.”
Against the backdrop of Parliamentary disputes and trade union protests against the Government’s social and economic policies, the IMF experts have carried on their assessment visit to Bucharest. Tied to the IMF, the EU and other foreign donors under a ‘stand-by’ loan agreement worth some 20 billion Euros, Romania hopes to see a preventive agreement in place for 2011. The IMF delegation, which has stuck to its guns in the last few days, has firmly rejected government’s intention to increase the minimum wage above the 650 RON threshold, which is the equivalent of some 150 Euros, and called on the government to not apply retroactively the emergency ordinance with which the government is trying to protect those who have taken out bank loans.
In Brussels, president Traian Basescu was busy engaging with the main organizations that Romania belongs to: the EU and NATO. At the European autumn council, the EU leaders analyzed proposals to improve economic oversight and considered more drastic fiscal discipline for the member states. At the NATO headquarters, Basescu pleaded for the creation of a NATO anti-missile system, based on the structure already established by the US and some East – European partners, including Romania.
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