Romania's President Elect Traian Basescu yesterday announced he would appoint Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, National Liberal Party (PNL) leader, as prime minister as soon as he becomes head of state. If Parliament does not endorse the PNL-PD Alliance Government, there would be fresh elections, warned Basescu.
"I discussed with Marko Bela (UDMR leader) on Tuesday night and with Dan Voiculescu (PUR leader) during Tuesday daytime and told them both that we'd be returning to the people if no solution is found. If the Alliance government is resisted, we will definitely resort to early elections," Basescu said.
"Cohabitation is an uncertain solution. We need a government that's certain. Cohabitation means instability or a rhythm of instability. If there are some politicians that do not understand this, we will turn to the people who voted for us," said Basescu in the presence of incumbent President Ion Iliescu.
The appointment of a PNL-PD Alliance prime minister and the formation of a government around this political bloc became a possibility after UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) postponed the signing of a protocol with the Union, which is comprised of PSD (Social Democrat Party) and PUR (Romanian Humanist Party), and with the national minorities group to form a parliamentary majority. The move by UDMR reversed the balance of power in the talks for the formation of the new government, which had been favourable to the party led by Adrian Nastase just one day before.
UDMR, one of the parties that holds the key to forming the next government along with PUR, used the idea of early elections as an argument in postponing the signing of the protocol with PSD and in continuing talks with both political blocs.
"We do not want early elections. UDMR also took this possibility into consideration, as mentioned in a statement by Traian Basescu," said the UDMR leader.
Given the current circumstances, UDMR will continue talks with both political blocs. The purpose of the talks, according to UDMR, is to obtain reassurance that a stable governmental majority will be formed.
Shortly after UDMR's announcement, PSD leader Viorel Hrebenciuc, one of the party's strategists, went to the UDMR headquarters. Hrebenciuc has been a constant participant in PSD-UDMR talks over the last four years.
The UDMR reversal seems to have caught PSD off-guard, as the party had announced the signing of an official agreement with UDMR and PUR in the presence of the leaders of the three parties - Adrian Nastase, Dan Voiculescu and Marko Bela. The ceremony was cancelled just minutes before it was scheduled to begin.
President Ion Iliescu, who is due to rejoin the ranks of PSD in a matter of days, says that talks are still being held for the formation of the next government in an attempt to find a formula that complies with constitutional rules.
PUR, the second party that could act as arbiter in the government, said that its goal was to form a large national pro-European concentration government to comprise all parliamentary parties except PRM (Greater Romania Party).
mirela.luca@zf.ro
