November 5, 2015 UPDATE
Balance and stability in Romania are the two objectives of the interim prime minister Sorin Campeanu.
Newsroom, 05.11.2015, 12:15
Balance and stability in Romania are the two objectives of the interim prime minister Sorin Campeanu for the period in which he will hold this position. He was designated interim PM on Thursday by President Klaus Iohannis. In his first speech, he said he wanted the support of parliamentary parties with which he will maintain dialogue and gave assurances to the business environment that he would do his best not to generate loss of trust. After Wednesday’s resignation of PM Ponta, President Klaus Iohannis started consultations with the parliamentary parties with a view to designating a new candidate for the position of prime minister. On Thursday the president held consultations with the representatives of the Social Democratic Party, holding the majority in the governing coalition, with the National Liberal Party, the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, both in opposition, and with the national minorities group. On Friday consultations will continue with the representatives of the National Union for the Progress of Romania and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, both in the governing coalition, and, for the first time, with the representatives of civil society, that, in the past days, has protested virulently in the street against the politicians’ corruption.
The Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday met with the interim PM Sorin Mihai Campeanu. The presidential administration pointed out that the talks focused on the priorities for the coming period, namely the state budget for 2016 and providing hospitals with all they need to take good care of the people injured in the terrible fire that occurred last Friday in a Bucharest nightclub. According to the quoted source, the two officials decided on the continuation of the ongoing projects that are essential for the development of Romania.
Protests continued on Thursday for the third consecutive day in Bucharest and the main cities of Romania. Thousands of people have asked for changing the political class and eradicating corruption and also for punishing those who are responsible for the tragedy that occurred last Friday in a Bucharest nightclub when more than 30 young people died. On Wednesday tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Romania asking for the dissolution of Parliament and holding early elections.
The process of appointing a new government increases uncertainties over macroeconomic policies, especially that the budget for 2016 has not yet been established, said Thursday the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu. He pointed out that the effects of this move on the economy would depend on how fast the new government would be formed and on the decisions they make. Mugur Isarescu has given assurances that the macro-economic situation is stable and in general the country’s economic situation is good. In another development, the national bank decided to maintain the monetary policy interest rate at 1.75% per year and to keep the current level of the minimum required reserve rates applicable to the bank’s liabilities in the national currency and in hard currency.
133 people, of whom 80 in a serious condition, are still in hospital following the fire in the Colectiv nightclub which caused the death of 32 people, the authorities announced. The death toll could rise significantly, doctors have warned, given that the club décor that burnt in the fire gave off extremely noxious gases and the injuries caused are atypical, including burns involving large areas of skin, lung necrosis and extensive respiratory damage. Health Minister Nicolae Banicioiu has given assurances that the hospitals where the injured are being taken care of have all necessary medicines and materials and has hailed the support of foreign doctors.
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet republic with a majority Romanian-speaking population, will check the legality of the dismissal through a no confidence vote of the three-party government headed by the Liberal Democrat Valeriu Strelet. A request in this respect was submitted to the Court by a Liberal Democrat MP, who says that the motion’s initiators, the Socialists and pro-Russian Communists, have accused Strelet of corruption without presenting any proof in support of their accusation. In spite of being part of the government coalition, the Democratic Party MPs voted in favor of the motion. Negotiations are under way for forming a new majority. Pundits are skeptical about the result and do not rule out the possibility of early elections.
