Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc resigned on Monday, joining a list of European leaders felled by fury at the kind of spending cuts that prompted weeks of mass protests in Bucharest against IMF-backed austerity.
Twenty-two 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, and his departure was welcomed by those braving bitter winter snows to demonstrate against pay and benefit cuts and sharp tax rises.
But as President Traian Basescu sought to minimise the upset by naming justice minister Catalin Predoiu as interim premier, Boc's resignation, nine months before a parliamentary election he seemed doomed to lose, also whetted appetites for more change in the team that turned to the IMF global lender for a bailout.
The leftist opposition called again for an early election, while some protesters want to see the back of the president himself, like Boc a product of the centrist Democrat-Liberal Party (PDL) and a vocal supporter of the austerity programme.
However, the International Monetary Fund said it expected no policy change after it helped to rescue Romania's state finances in 2009 with a 20 billion-euro ($26-billion) loan on condition of deep cuts in government spending. Investment analysts also saw little reason to adjust their expectations.
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 teargas. Demonstrators gathered again on Monday amid the snowdrifts of the capital's University Square, an emblem of hope from the 1989 revolution.
For Boc's PDL, languishing in polls, the message was not positive: "The first hurdle has been overcome," one banner read. "Boc's resignation is useless, since Basescu is the one that controls everything," said Florin Cioraca, a 56-year-old military veteran, among the demonstrators on the square. However, few expect further major changes in government yet.
President's choice
Boc's cabinet will remain in place under Predoiu in a caretaker capacity until Basescu, who has often used his nationally figurehead post to play a significant role in politics, decides whether to ask Predoiu - or someone else - to form a new government that can secure a majority in parliament.
While the opposition Social Liberal Union (USL), riding high in the polls, wants an early election, its lack of a majority in the current legislature means the president is likely to be able to secure parliamentary backing for an eventual nominee who can then most likely run the country until an election in the fall.
Whatever happens, the IMF mission chief in Bucharest, Jeffrey Franks, told Reuters he did not expect major changes in Romania's policies: "I see no reason necessarily for this to have a material effect on the aid agreement," he said. "We have every expectation the agreement will continue." Even the main opposition say they would work with the IMF. Romania had sought IMF aid to maintain investor confidence even though its public debt to gross domestic product ratio was the fourth lowest in the EU - and despite not yet locking itself into the Union discipline of the euro currency, which has posed such difficulties for the likes of Greece.
Forced to borrow from the international lender, the austerity demanded, including cuts of a quarter in public sector wages and an increase in sales tax, has enraged public opinion.
"Releasing tension"
"I took this decision to release the tension in the country's political and social situation, but also in order not to lose what Romanians have won," Boc said in a televised speech, his voice calm and betraying little sign of emotion.
Comments
