Government should leave if it gets to tax hikes, Minister Blaga says

Vasile Blaga is the third minister in the Boc Cabinet to admit to the Executive's long-standing awareness of major economic issues in Romania. The country reportedly needs yet another IMF stand-by agreement. Turmoil in PDL over post-no-confidence vote governance, opposition also seems undecided.  Things are not at all clear in PDL as to the steps to follow after the no-confidence vote. While the old faction reassures they have things under control, younger vice presidents are calling for a cabinet reshuffling.

During a Pro TV show yesterday, amidst reassurances and appeals to calmness, Interior Minister Vasile Blaga admitted to the fact that the authorities had been aware of the precarious situation of the country ever since 2009 without doing anything, as well as to Romania's being in a very serous situation at present. "In January 2009 we were already aware of the difficult situation Romania was in, but we did not take the austerity measures right away," Blaga said. "There have been developments worldwide after January 2009. We could have taken such measures, but we didn't believe they were necessary at the time," he added. "Romania is in the most difficult circumstances ever since WWII," Blaga further said.

Blaga is the third minister of the Boc Cabinet to admit to the Executive's long-standing awareness of major economic issues in Romania, without acting. The first to admit to that was Transport Minister Radu Berceanu. "It is not that we have been lying to you, but politicians did not really want to disclose absolutely all faces of reality as it was developing," Berceanu said about the situation. "It would have been very easy for us to keep on lying," Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu was also saying a few days afterwards, trying to explain why the Government had made the sudden decision of introducing its austerity plan.

On no-confidence motion, IMF and taxes

Blaga went on to say that he did not believe the Government would fall after the no-confidence vote and that he hopes austerity measures would be also sustained by the Constitutional Court if it ever came to that.

Asked if Traian Basescu ought to be leaving, too, along with the government, if measures failed, Blaga answered that 'the government was ruling the country, not Traian Basescu'.

Nine O'Clock