Boc government to remain in place until after the presidential elections

Designated prime minister Liviu Negoiţă yesterday presented the structure of his government with which he intends to gain the vote of confidence from the Parliament.

Negoiţă will present a 14-ministry cabinet, with ministers affiliated with the democrat-liberal party and several politicians coming from among independent members of the Parliament.

Only three ministers differ from those proposed by the previous interim prime-minister Lucian Croitoru, (Agriculture, Healthcare and Internal Affairs), but leaders of the major parliamentary groups say that this government will most likely be voted down as well.

While in the case of Lucian Croitoru, the parties that make up the so called "transparent political majority" - PSD+PC, PNL, UDMR and the group of minorities (others than the Hungarians) - accepted to negotiate just out of deference, in the case of Negoiţă, everything was solved bluntly: the Democratic Union of Hungarians was the only one that even accepted a talk, during which it reaffirmed its support for the mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Johannis as prime-minister.

Liberals and social-democrats no longer participated in the consultations for the formation of the government, even though yesterday, the leader of PSD, Mircea Geoană, said he is waiting for Negoiţă to come over for an amicable discussion, in order to tell him that he doesn"t stand a chance of getting through the Parliament.

"A polite discussion with Liviu Negoiţă is necessary, I invite him to visit me at the headquarters of the PSD or in the Senate and give him my advice. I want to tell him that he just sacrificed himself, and he will be cynically thrown to the wolves, just like Lucian Croitoru was", said Mircea Geoană.

"If Mr. Mircea Geoană actually has any advice to give, with all due respect, perhaps he should save it for his parliamentaries and tell them to vote in favor of this government"", said Liviu Negoiţă.

The president of the National Council of the PSD, Adrian Năstase, said that by appointing Liviu Negoiţă as prime-minister, president Traian Băsescu is laying the "foundation" for the dissolution of the Parliament. In this respect, Năstase mentioned that PSD together with its allies in the new parliamentary majority are preparing a strategy that will be announced in the coming days.

Besides, according to sources from the PSD, social-democrats are considering alternatives for delaying the vote on the Negoiţă government as much as possible, most likely until after the first round of the presidential elections. And liberals, through their leaders, said that it would be better if the specialized commission of the Parliament refused to hear the ministers proposed by Negoiţă and refused to vote on this government.

Even though Negoiţă yesterday announced he sent his governing program to the Parliament together with the list of ministers in his cabinet, the proceedings will most likely drag on due to the fact that most members of the Parliament are busy touring their electoral colleges.

The questor of the senate, social-democrat Ioan Chelaru, said that if the letter of the appointed prime-minister Liviu Negoiţă reached the Parliament on Monday (ed. note: yesterday), than the Permanent Office of the Senate, summoned today, would also take into account the fact that most MPs will be touring their colleges the week before the elections and thus will not be able to attend the vote on the new cabinet.

In turn, democrat-liberals, through the leader of their group in the chamber of deputies, Mircea Toader, called upon the other parliamentary parties to hold an emergency hearing of the of the ministers in the cabinet proposed by Negoiţă.

Democrat-liberals said they support holding the hearings "over a very short period", instead of the 15-day period provided by the regulations, alleging that "any delay could cause Romania serious harm". "If they want to postpone the appointment of the Negoiţă government, they are taking on a major responsibility", Toader said.