The continuous pressure from President Traian Basescu and the decision of the Constitutional Court to declare parts of the law on justice reform unconstitutional have pushed Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu and some Liberal-party leaders to accept the holding of early elections.
The Premier yesterday announced that the Government''s mission was over and that he would hand in his resignation to the head of state next week, as yesterday''s decision was political in nature.
Tariceanu requested that the Coalition (comprised of Liberal, Democrat and Conservative Parties and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) begin internal procedures for the dissolution of Parliament, given that the early elections would be organised in line with constitutional procedures after successive resignations and investitures for forming a Government.
On Wednesday night, only a few hours after the Constitutional Court had sustained some of the objections from the PSD (Social Democrat Party), PRM (Greater Romania Party) and High Court of Cassation and Justice on justice laws, the prime minister said holding elections before they were due was out of the question. Things took a new turn after Wednesday night''s PD (Democrat Party) meeting, when it was decided to twist the prime minister''s arm, and after a telephone conversation between Tariceanu and President Basescu, who warned that Democrat ministers would drop out of the Government if he did not agree to early elections.
Yesterday morning the PNL (National Liberal Party) and then the Coalition leaders all agreed to early elections.
The Premier explained the decision of the Government to relinquish their mandate through the decision of the Constitutional Court to void the set of laws on justice reform of content.
"We are faced with a political situation in which the Constitutional Court essentially amputates the content of the laws on justice reform and in effect prevents the current Government, in which Parliament has placed its trust, from continuing the reform process, as pledged to the EU. With the reform process thus frozen, we stand no chance of obtaining a favourable report from the European Commission," Tariceanu said.
He added that the current instability caused by the long procedures related to early elections was of no importance for the European Commission''s monitoring report.
"EU integration is no longer about the early elections. The decision of the Court has lifted the obstacle to accession and we need to be aware of that."
"The vote of the electorate will decide whether Romania wants to proceed with justice reform or maintain the same bastardised system, a Constitutional Court politically dominated by the party that was in power before us and is now trying as hard as it can to defend its privileges," the Premier said.
Not everybody is happy with the idea of early elections. As far as the economic environment is concerned, business people claim that the resignation of the Government will hinder the economy-related decision-making process.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange declined yesterday in anticipation of Tariceanu''s decision, with brokers saying investors would now be more reluctant to buy shares.
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