February 07, 2012

Mass protests bring down Romanian government

The Romanian government resigned on Monday, in the wake of mass protests against its austerity measures over the past three weeks.

Prime Minister Emil Boc explained his resignation in a televised cabinet meeting by saying he wanted to diffuse social tensions without compromising his unpopular austerity measures. “I took this decision to release the tension in the country's political and social situation, but also in order not to lose what Romanians have won.”

President Traian Basescu immediately appointed former justice minister Catalin Predoiu as acting prime minister. The 43-year-old Predoiu is a non-affiliated politician who first took office in 2008 as a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL). Following the election of Emil Boc of the Liberal Democrats (PDL) in December 2008, a new government was formed, and the National Liberals went into opposition. Predoiu stayed on as justice minister and resigned from his party. He played a key role in the relations with the European Union, which Romania joined in 2007.

It remains unclear whether Predoiu will lead the government until the general election scheduled in November or if elections will be called early. There is discussion about the formation of a “technocrat” regime similar to those already established in Greece and Italy.

In its three-and-a-half year tenure, the Boc government has implemented the harshest austerity measures in all of Europe. Although the average wage in Romania is only €350 a month, the government cut public service salaries by 25 percent and increased the value added tax from 19 to 24 percent. Over 200,000 public service employees have lost their jobs since 2009.

In 2009, Boc worked closely with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund imposing the required cuts. These were the conditions demanded for the €20 billion loan that the country required in order to weather the international financial crisis.

The IMF is confident that Boc’s austerity program will be continued after his resignation. The IMF representative in Bucharest, Jeffrey Franks, told Reuters that he did not expect that the IMF agreement would be affected by the change in government.

via www.wsws.org

Feb 7, 2012 9:34:34 AM

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Jodi Dean

Jodi Dean is a political theorist.

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