High hopes amid Romanians for Social Democrat-led coalition government despite concerns over corruption

Record ID: 163131

  • Title: High hopes amid Romanians for Social Democrat-led coalition government despite concerns over corruption
  • Date: 5th January 2017
  • Summary: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA (JANUARY 5, 2017) (REUTERS) CARS DRIVING BY TRIUMPH ARCH CLOSE UP OF ROMANIAN FLAG ON ARCH
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2017 11:42
  • Keywords: Romania vote of confidence Social-Democrat-led coalition
  • Location: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
  • City: BUCHAREST, ROMANIA
  • Country: Romania
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015XT12K9
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Romania's Social Democrats party (PSD) appears to have won the support of many Romanians with promises of increased social spending and economic security, but concerns over corruption are high among analysts.
    The Social Democrat-led coalition government won a vote of confidence in parliament on Wednesday (January 04), as expected, returning to power after a one-year break.
    The PSD was ousted in November 2015, after a deadly fire in a Bucharest nightclub led to nationwide protests over graft and slipshod public administration. In various alliances, it had governed for a total of about 17 years since the fall of communism in 1989.
    The party is now led by an official convicted in an election-rigging case, Liviu Dragnea, with analysts concerned over corruption and the country's European partners fearing that the new government might breach the EU's ceiling on public deficit.
    Political analyst Mircea Marian was not optimistic about the future of Romania's anti-corruption office, the DNA, which was responsible for charging scores of officials with graft in past years.
    "The new government's short-term goal will be to stop the fight against corruption. They will not necessarily attack the anti-corruption office, but they will modify the legislation in a way that leaves prosecutors without tools (for fighting corruption)," he told Reuters in Bucharest on Thursday (January 05).
    "In the long-term they will probably use alms - like increases of pensions, increases of salaries in the budget, and all of this as preparations for the 2019 presidential campaign, which they are already thinking about. They will probably succeed making it fit the (EU) deficit ceiling, by falsifying statistic data," he added.
    The PSD has promised a 16 percent increase in the minimum wage.
    The cabinet also wants to raise minimum pensions by 30 percent to 520 lei ($125) a month, increase welfare spending and scholarships and scrap several other taxes.
    Increases in pensions and wages in the public health and education sectors are already approved, which have been welcomed by many Romanians.
    "Nobody should bother them and they should know what to do. We have been waiting for more than 20 years, we are waiting," Eufrosina, resident in Bucharest, said about the new government.
    Romania's ombudsman asked the Constitutional Court on Thursday to strike down a law that bars people convicted of a criminal offence from joining the government, a move that could help the leader of the ruling party to become prime minister.
    The 2001 law prevented Dragnea, leader of the Social Democrats (PSD), from becoming premier after his party won a Dec. 11 parliamentary election as he is serving a two-year suspended jail sentence over a 2012 vote-rigging case.
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