Yearbook 2008
Romania. In January, the Constitutional Court ruled that
the investigations of Romania's communist past violated the
Constitution, as the Investigative Council acted as
prosecutor, judge and appellate body at the same time. Tens
of thousands of investigations had been conducted to test
people for public service, and hundreds of people had been
revealed as former Securitate employees. According to
Countryaah reports, the court's
decision led to street protests and the government
intervened through compulsory decrees to enable the council
to continue its work.
In February, the European Commission declared that
Romania must quickly show improvements in the fight against
high-level corruption. Romania and Bulgaria are the only EU
countries with a system of judicial reform and fight against
corruption and organized crime.
When the majority of EU countries and several of Serbia's
neighbors at the beginning of the year recognized Kosovo's
independence, Romania protested and warned of a dangerous
precedent for the world in general and the Balkans in
particular.
In April, President Băsescu met his American counterpart
George W. Bush, who came to Bucharest for a NATO summit. It
was the first time that Romania was hosted and the meeting
was held in the huge Parliament Palace that the dictator
Ceauşescu had built.
In September, the Romanian Parliament challenged the EU
through a legislative amendment that allowed the Justice
Minister to move away from the Anti-Corruption Office's
chief prosecutor. He had then brought charges of corruption
against a number of resigned and incumbent ministers. Prime
Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu visited Brussels and was
told that it must be a national priority for the Romanian
government to tackle high-level corruption. According to
Transparency International, Romania is the EU's most corrupt
country, where bribery in health care and schooling is
particularly common.
In November, it became clear that Romania will build two
new nuclear reactors in addition to the two existing
reactors, which account for one fifth of Romania's
electricity supply.
The parliamentary elections at the end of November were
very even. The Social Democrats (PSD) won a tight victory
with 33.6 percent over the right-wing Liberal Democrats
(PD-L), which gained 32.9 percent. Prime Minister Taricean's
party Liberals (PNL) had to settle for 18.6 percent of the
vote.
The coalition negotiations resulted in an agreement on a
left-right government between the Social Democrats and the
Liberal Democrats. The appointed Prime Minister Theodor
Stolojan resigned and was replaced as head of government by
Liberal Democratic Party leader Emil Boc, 42.
1990s - political and economic development
The first transitional years after 1989
After Nicolae Ceauşescu was arrested and executed in
December 1989, the board was taken over by a temporary
government from the National Rescue Front (Frontul Salvării
Naționale, FSN), headed by Ion Iliescu. He had held high
positions in the Communist Party, but had lost his power.
The Prime Minister became Petre Roman. The rescue front
initially appeared as a cross-political task with preparing
the first free elections, but still ran as a party and won a
clear electoral victory (66 percent) in May 1990. In
addition, Ion Iliescu was elected president. He was
re-elected in 1992. Big demonstrations in Bucharest in
May-June 1990 for a clearer break with the communist past,
thousands of miners entered the city to "clean up".
The political struggles of the 1990s took place against
the background of difficult economic and social conditions
in the first years after the communist regime's collapse in
1989. Ceausescu regime's commitment to heavy industry,
forced repayment of all government foreign debt, costly
prestige projects and resistance to the kind of economic
reforms had been introduced in several other Eastern
European countries in the 1980s, explains why things were so
bad in Romania, and that the country was having difficulty
adjusting to the new market situation in Europe. The supply
of foreign investment capital has long been small compared
to other former communist countries such as Hungary and
Poland. Initially, the privatization of the major industry
was slow. In trade and other services, however, many new
private companies grew in the short term.
Liberalization of prices and other reforms recommended by
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund did not
lead to a better life for most people, as many had dreamed
when Ceaușescu was overthrown. Inflation was up 300 per cent
in 1993, but then declined. Gross domestic product declined
significantly in the first years after 1989, but from 1993 a
cautious growth began. Nevertheless, at the end of the 1990s
it was still lower than ten years earlier.
In connection with the transformation of the economic
system from communist planning economy to market economy,
social differences increased sharply. Although the country
initially undertook fewer economic reforms than other
post-communist countries, many unprofitable businesses were
closed down, including around 30 coal mines closed in 1998.
Most of the other business sector had gradually been
privatized. Among the social consequences were unemployment,
but also the reduction of the population in many industrial
cities by moving people to villages they were associated
with. Buildings and other real estate taken over by the
state during communism were handed back to former owners or
their heirs, which often created conflicts or buildings
being dilapidated. In agriculture became the public uses
dissolved.
Minority Conflicts
The position of the minorities, not least the Hungarians,
seemed to be a topic of conflict following the fall of the
dictatorship. In March 1990 there was a clash between
Hungarians and Romanians in Tārgu Mureş in Transilvania.
Several lost their lives. Later, new incidents of violence
have not occurred to a greater extent, but there have been
several tense political situations, both in local issues and
in central legislation, including on school policy.
More conflicted in daily life has been the relationship
with the Roma population (Gypsies). During the communist
regime, the Romans had tried to integrate and partially
assimilate into the majority population. But the level of
education was low and there was widespread poverty. Although
many had come into paid employment, substantially as
unskilled workers, such jobs were precarious. The
restructuring of the economy affected many of them, so that
poverty among the Roma increased, while they were often
faced with discrimination and condescending attitudes. From
2001, the authorities became more systematic to improve
conditions, but without making any significant changes. The
situation of the Roma is to a small extent on the political
agenda.
The opposition with electoral victory in 1996
The opposition to the Iliescu- led government that had
been in power since the fall of Ceaușescu in 1989 won a
significant victory in November 1996 when a central /
right-wing alliance of parties and organizations, the
Democratic Convention (Convenția Democrată Romānă, CDR), was
the largest in parliamentary elections (but without a
majority alone), and Emil Constantinescu of the same group
won the incumbent President Iliescu in the second round of
the presidential election with 54 percent of the vote.
Iliescu had been re-elected as president in 1992, but in
1996 he was politically weakened both because of the
difficult times for most people, a strengthened opposition
and because his own party had been split by a more
reform-friendly wing under former Prime Minister Petre
Roman emerged as a competing party under the name of the
Democratic Party (Partidul Democrat, PD). Roman was in the
presidential election and came in third place. One
consequence of the election was that even those who had been
in doubt about the former Communist leaders under Iliescu's
willingness to relinquish power through an electoral defeat,
felt that democratic power exchange had now become part of
the system, not only in theory but in practice. |
