Iliescu Comes In Front

The former President, the SDP (Social Democratic Party) Senator Ion Iliescu, asked Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu to give up on his announced resignation. He has also asked Basescu to call the SCCD (Supreme Council for the Country’s Defense) due to the country’s situation.

Yesterday, Ion Iliescu criticized the wish of the present Power of starting the before-term elections while the people in the country suffer from the floods, and he categorized this as "a proof of irresponsibility, of turning the back to the responsibilities and of a maximal disregard towards the people". As former President, Ion Iliescu wanted to make public "his concern and uneasiness" to the "dramatic situation" of the present Romania, because of the great meteorology phenomena in the past months. He sent his sympathy to the ones that suffered from the natural calamities and called for solidarity for helping the ones that have no houses anymore.

CALL. Iliescu also called for responsibility from all the politicians, "who have the great obligation of leaving aside all the parasite issues that have no connection to the real Romania and to the needs and expectancies of the people, in order to take care of their main priority: the firm and efficient management of the country’s problems and the elimination of the natural calamities". "It is a cynical and indecent thing to spend thousands of billions of old lei for satisfying some political ambitions by organizing the before-term elections and expensive electoral campaigns when there are a lot of Romanians that suffer and that will suffer in the following months", the SDP Senator also said. "We should not play at elections. Every half an year we discover new reasons for playing at elections. They cost money, time, they take the state’s structures out of the normal route, and we all know about the deficiencies of our administrative system", he completed.

THE SCCD CALLING. The former President has also asked President Traian Basescu to immediately call the SCCD to discuss the country’s situation and to decide the declaring of the state of necessity in the flooded areas. Moreover, he asked President Basescu to preside a special Government meeting to set the measures that should be taken by the ministries, the other central and local institutions of the state, as well as the responsibilities of each member of the Government. „This is not the moment for the President to shut up like nothing ever happened", Iliescu added.

Iliescu emphasized that he is demanding a responsible analysis of the situation of the country. "The before-term elections aren’t what we need right now. It’s been only half an year since the last elections, and the Government received a motion of confidence from the Parliament two weeks ago. What are the reasons for the before-term elections when the country is suffering?", Iliescu wondered. He stated he felt he had to draw attention on the gravity of the problems in the country.

COTROCENI. Ion Iliescu confirmed he was supposed to attend yesterday’s meeting from Cotroceni, as a leader of the SDP Senators, thinking that the issue of the meeting might have been today’s meeting of the Parliament for the laws of Justice. Iliescu said he had received the invitation of taking part in the discussions at Cotroceni after he had written the speech he had read to the press. He said he would give this statement to the President and to the other participants to the discussion in Cotroceni as well. Before the Cotroceni meeting, Iliescu had taken part in a meeting of the SDP leading board.

Prime Minister’s Resignation - "Irrevocable"

While Ion Iliescu was asking Prime Minister Tariceanu to give up on the resignation, at the Victoria Palace, Oana Marinescu, the Government’s spokesperson, was re-reading an official statement from Monday night. The statement reminded that Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s decision of resigning was irrevocable. "The citizens and the journalists will be informed early about the moment of its submission", the statement says.

RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE TEMPORARY PM. Yesterday, the Tariceanu Cabinet has also modified with a decree the Law no. 90 from 2001 regarding the organization and the functioning of the Romanian Government and ministries. This way, during the interim, the Executive will be able to promote regulative documents, having the same power as the laws, for three exceptional situations: the regulation of certain measures necessary for respecting the obligations towards the EU, the intercession of the effects of the special events, like the calamities, and in case there appear any special budget-related needs that cannot be postponed. Until now, the temporary Executive could have only named or dismissed people, given financial and urgent help or to supplemented the budget of the public institutions from the funds available for the Government. (Ny Gabriela Antoniu, Florina Zainescu)