Romania President Basescu: My priority stands in formation of a government to comply with people's will

Romanian President Traian Basescu said Thursday he has invited all parties to negotiate the formation of a new government at the presidential palace on Friday. In his first public statement following the November 30 general elections, he criticized the electoral law which he says has a major deficiency: lack of fairness. He said the system must be improved, but not changed at fundamental level. He said he hoped the nomination of a new prime minister would be made before December 15 and the new government be validated by December 24.

Key points of President Basescu’s speech:

• In compliance with the Constitution, when consulting political parties I’ll consider their position in the Parliament according to the number of their seats
• I did so in 2004 when there was a difference of one seat between the-then D.A. Alliance and the Social Democrats
• I invited parties for consultations in the order given by the numbers of seats each has in the Parliament
• Some considerations about the legislation, given that elections are over and changes to electoral law were subjects of a referendum
• I still consider the current law is a step forward as compared to previous one which was based on voting according to lists of candidates
• But the biggest deficiency of the current law is the lack of fairness. the law allows the allocation of seats to candidates who came third or fourth in their constituencies
• Those who created this law now have the opportunity to admit their errors
• It’s a matter of the Guinness Book that a candidate with a criminal file wins against the Justice minister in the electoral process
• The system must be improved, not subjected to fundamental changes
• My goal in consulting political parties: to learn their vision on the creation of the future government in a difficult moment, considering the effects of the global crisis on the Romanian economy
• I will pay special attention to the level of competence within party ranks
• I fully support keeping the pensions at their current level
• We have difficulties with the state budget
• I do not name the prime minister, I only select him – the Parliament will validate him or not, by vote
• I hope I’d select a prime minister before December 15 and that we have a new government before December 24
• Our main goal – to give Romania a government that can manage the crisis period