President Traian Basescu told party leaders during yesterday's talks in Cotroceni that he did not want a technocratic government but instead would agree to a national unity government run by an independent Premier.
He did not explicitly dismiss the proposal of the opposition parties, PNL (National Liberal Party), PSD (Social-Democratic Party), UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania) and of the national minorities, which are backing Sibiu's mayor Klaus Johannis for Prime Minister for a term of two months until after the autumn presidential elections.
Before the talks with the parties, the head of state told the ambassadors of the EU countries whom he had called to Cotroceni at noon, that he would rather appoint a Prime Minister who is close to the International Monetary Fund.
Democrat-liberal circles suggested a few names yesterday, such as Lucian Croitoru, former Romanian representative to the IMF and current advisor of NBR Governor Mugur Isarescu, and Mihai Tanasescu, former PSD Finance Minister and current representative of Romania to the Washington-based institution, as potential Premiers.
"I understand that you are for an independent Prime Minister. Maybe we can discuss it, on condition that the rest of the Government be political. I repeat: on condition that the rest of the Government be political," Basescu said. "Let's be honest about it: are you so ashamed of political parties that you would push the responsibility of the governance to some technocrats we have to manipulate from behind? I believe we should overcome the complex that we might be ashamed of ourselves. This is who we are," Basescu added.
Under the circumstances, IMF is now in the position of granting Romania new temporary waivers from the commitments that have to be fulfilled until the end of the year and which cannot be fulfilled in the absence of a
