Lucian Croitoru, the Premier appointed by President TraianBasescu, yesterday tried in vain to gain political support from PSD(Social Democratic Party), PNL (National Liberal Party) and UDMR(Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania), while Romaniacontinues to get negative signals about the funding from the IMF,EU and the World Bank.
Even after meeting with the representatives of the threeparties, Croitoru only has the explicit support of PD-L(Democratic-Liberal Party), although he says he did explain topoliticians "things he cannot explain before the press", amongwhich the issue of covering the 3.5 billion euros needed to financethe budget deficit until the end of the year. He said he was notthinking of handing in his resignation from his office, as he wassuggested to do by the parties allied against him.
PSD, PNL, and UDMR stood their ground, backing the nomination ofKlaus Johannis and preparing a new official message for PresidentTraian Basescu, asking him to reconsider.
As the political crisis evolves, NBR continues to fight the RONdepreciation pressure, which has maintained the exchange rate ataround 4.30 RON/EUR or 4.35 RON/EUR at exchange offices.
The pressure could get worse once Romania's main lenders - theIMF, the European Commission and the World Bank have announced oneby one by the tranches scheduled for the end of the year would bepostponed.
"We are looking forward to a new Cabinet in Bucharest urgently,"Amelia Torres, spokesperson for the Commissioner for Economic andMonetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia told ZF.
All three institutions said they would not send their assessmentmission to Romania unless a new Government starts operating, whichis the condition on which the fulfilment of all commitmentsundertaken in exchange for the money depend: from the approval ofthe 2010 budget to the legislation on pensions and salary in thepublic sector.
President Traian Basescu suggested he might try to negotiatewith the IMF to have it send its experts to discuss with thetoppled government of Emil Boc, but such a concession is highlyunlikely from the part of the international institution.
The Premier appointed Lucian Croitoru admits that 3.5 billioneuros are hard to collect in a short period of time, "but are evenharder to collect in a time of political crisis", without takinginto account withdrawal from the race for the Victoria Palace(Government HQ) as a solution to make the blockage shorter.
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