Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu announced yesterday that he would no longer resign as Prime Minister, after having claimed for more than two weeks that his decision was irrevocable.
The announcement came just one day after his return from Brussels where he tried to explain to European Commission officials why early elections were needed.
"At the moment I''m no longer interested in early elections," he said. "I don''t think this is a problem that should occupy the minds of those people (the floods victims). It would be a cowardly move on my part to resign at this time."
This means there are two reasons for yesterday''s announcement: European integration, and the need to concentrate on solving the flood problems.
Both opposition and parliamentary parties - the Conservative Party (PC) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) - had argued on countless occasions that the early elections were not needed.
The decision not to resign was announced yesterday afternoon after a swathe of meetings at Victoria Palace, which houses the government headquarters: a meeting between the cabinet leader and President Traian Basescu; a meeting of the National Liberal Party-Democrat Party (PNL-PD) Alliance; and a meeting of the ruling coalition.
The result: the Premier will no longer resign and will appear before Parliament tomorrow to make a political declaration. The statement is supposed to be about the need to continue reforms in view of EU accession and the reconstruction of the areas affected by floods.
Yesterday''s announcement concerning the Prime Minister''s decision not to resign was delivered in a emotional tone of voice: "This is not a time to give up, a brave leader never leaves his people in times of trouble. I chose the solution that had to be chosen now, both morally and patriotically. It would have been a cowardly act on my part to resign at this moment. This is no time for party in-fighting. A leader never leaves his people in time of need." The statement is very similar to the one delivered a week ago when Tariceanu announced his resignation was irrevocable. At that time he said he would not reconsider his decision because he did not want to play a part in sentencing his "people to poverty and misery" after the Constitutional Court did not agree, in his opinion, with the reform of the justice system.
He continued in the same tone of voice. Talking of the necessity to rebuild infrastructure following the floods, he turned to a nursery rhyme to illustrate his point: "The stone bridge has fallen down". In the words of the rhyme, he promised: "We''ll build another, stronger and more beautiful (bridge)".
Tariceanu indirectly confirmed the concerns of the European Commission about the prospect of early elections, saying: "The Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, told me (on Monday night) that every hour, every day must be dedicated to the accession". Olli Rehn had previously stated that the EU ruling body was concerned about the situation in Romania since the unavoidable period of political inactivity due to early elections could lead to delays in adopting reforms.
PNL-PD sources confirmed as early as Monday night that the European Commission could ask the Premier to give up or postpone his resignation, as the interim period could lead to delays in implementing the reforms needed for accession. iulian.anghel@zf.ro
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