Romanian PM joins leaders felled by austerity measures

Published on Tuesday 7 February 2012 00:00

Romanian prime minister Emil Boc resigned yesterday, joining the list of European leaders felled by public fury at tough spending cuts and IMF-backed austerity measures that saw weeks of protests in Bucharest.

President Traian Basescu asked foreign intelligence service head Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu to form a new cabinet. But Mr Ungureanu quickly pledged to continue the unpopular economic reforms and his appointment may do little to assuage popular anger.

Some 22 years after they overthrew communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanians are the second-poorest people in the EU, earning just a fraction of neighbours in the West.

Mr Boc’s resignation, nine months before a scheduled parliamentary election he seemed doomed to lose, whetted appetites for more change in the team that turned to the International Monetary Fund in 2009 for €20 billion to prevent a financial meltdown.

Some protesters still want to see the back of the president, who is, like Mr Boc, a product of the centrist Democrat-Liberal Party (PDL) and a vocal supporter of the austerity programme.

Mr Ungureanu, 43, a historian and former foreign minister, pledged to continue Mr Boc’s economic reforms during a short speech at the president’s palace.

He said: “The reforms will continue. The advantage that I will bring is to be a good administrator.”

The occasionally violent protests have been Romania’s worst unrest in more than a decade. Protesters have hurled bricks and bottles at police, who responded with tear gas.

Demonstrators gathered again yesterday amid the snowdrifts of the capital’s University Square, an emblem of hope from the 1989 revolution. The message was not positive for Mr Boc’s PDL party, which is languishing in the polls. “The first hurdle has been overcome,” one banner read.

One of the demonstrators, Florin Cioraca, 56, a military veteran, said: “Boc’s resignation is useless, since Basescu is the one that controls everything.”

While the popular opposition Social Liberal Union (USL), wants an early election, it does not have enough seats in parliament to block Mr Ungureanu’s nomination unless it can attract defectors from Mr Boc’s previous coalition of PDL, ethnic minorities and a group of independents.

Romania was forced to seek IMF aid even though its public debt to gross domestic product ratio was the fourth lowest in the EU – and despite not yet being part of the single currency.

Forced to borrow from the international lender, the austerity measures demanded in return – including cuts of a quarter in public sector wages – have enraged public opinion.

Protesters are angry about low living standards and what they say is widespread corruption in a country where the average income is less than €350 – a quarter of France’s legal minimum wage – and some villages and even parts of the capital have no running water or electricity.

Many despair of the country’s efforts to change.

“I moved to Boston after the revolution and stayed there for 22 years,” said Maria, 53, an architect, who was walking to work in Bucharest yesterday. “When I came back, I realised that nothing changed while I was gone.”

Mr Basescu, a bluff former sea captain known for his outspoken approach, holds a position that is in theory largely ceremonial, but is now seen by many as the real seat of power. His mandate expires in 2014.

He now hopes a change at the top of the government will allow the PDL breathing space to regain ground in the polls, though it is a long way back with less than 20 per cent support.