Geoană asks unions for backing in the electoral campaign

The president of the PSD, Mircea Geoană, yesteday met with the leaders of major union confederations, at the headquarters of the Social-Democrat Party (PSD), and asked them for their support for the second round of the presidential elections, scheduled for December 6th.

The social democrat leader assured union leaders, that, should he become president, he would foster a "true social dialog" between unions, professional associations, nongovernmental organizations and the Government, by creating a special presidential commission which would have social purposes (ed. note: it would put up for public debate a national social project for defining Romania in the 21st century).

Mircea Geoană told union leaders that he would "encourage" Klaus Johannis to debate the governing program with the unions and that the laws concerning Unified wages, National Education and Pensions would be put up for debate again.

At the end of the talks with the union leaders, when journalists asked whether the subject of the unions backing him up for the presidential elections was brought up, the president of the PSD said: "I won"t deny that I"ve asked for their support. Obviously every union will do whatever they feel is best".

The leader of the PSD also mentioned the collaboration between PSD and the CNSLR Frăţia union and said that it was "about time" for cooperation between the various layers of society to return to normalcy, 20 years after the revolution.

• Unions are requesting the reintroduction of the progressive tax

The representatives of the Union Confederations said that they talked to Mircea Geoană about the issues which are of special interest to the union members.

""It is in our interest to promote the interest of our union members, and our current priorities are economic recovery and the creation of new jobs"", said the chairman of the union confederation Cartel Alfa, Bogdan Hossu.

The leader of the National Union Block, (BNS), Dumitru Costin, said that unionists approached several of the points in Mircea Geoană"s political program, one of them being the need for the reintroduction of the progressive tax.

The unionist mentioned that he would present a list of priorities to Mircea Geoană, including, among others, the need for urgent reform in the energy sector, as well as the need for a national job creation program, which BNS feels should be the "absolute priority of the next government".

When asked bys journalists about whether BNS would back Mircea Geoană in the presidential elections, the chairman of the BNS said that his organization does not formally get involved in presidential elections, but he did imply that if Geoană were receptive to the unions" proposals, the members of the major union blocks would know what they need to do and they would choose a candidate that would best suit their interests.