Financiarul

President Traian Basescu said on Wednesday evening that his option for the position of Prime Minister was a man who should have economic expertise and experience in the relationship with the banks, but also with the banking and financial institutions the world over.

“Considering the economic situation, to which one must add the political crisis too, my option still is that the major priority is the treatment for the economic crisis. The political crisis was added to the economic crisis by some parties that were not responsible for what they did.

My option for the position of Prime Minister is a man that should have economic expertise. Also a man who should have experience in the relationship with the banks, but also with the banking and financial institutions the world over. We also need a Prime Minister that should be capable of coordinating all the ministries, institutions, which underlie meeting our obligations in the relationship with the IMF and the EU, the second largest financier,” said the President.

He appreciated that this was the more so important as, if Romania did not get the next two tranches from the IMF, there might be difficulties in paying salaries and pensions. “I want you to understand very well that, without taking the two tranches from the IMF and the EU in October, November, December, we might find it impossible to pay salaries and pensions,” said the Head of State.

But Basescu added that parties awkwardly approached such a question by thinking that it was the responsibility of the Minister of Finance. “I would like to make one thing clear, a thing that shows how awkwardly parties approach the questions of the Prime Minister from the point of view of the economic crisis.

The answer to my description of the future Prime Minister … was: no, we need a good Finance Minister. To me it was the answer telling me that we were talking about different things.

The question of the agreement with the IMF and the EU is not only connected to the Ministry of Finance, it is connected to meeting salary conditions, the restructuring of the state apparatus, meeting the conditions we assumed for the pension system, the absorption of the European funds.

All this makes up a whole that should enable us to draw the financing from the IMF late this month, in early November and the tranche form the EU in December,” said the President. He thought that this situation could be made worse by postponing the law on saving money by means of the budget employees having holidays without pay for ten days.

“And this is the more so as today the Constitutional Court has put off the law by which the Government assumed responsibility and which aimed at saving money by means of all the budget employees getting ten-day holidays without pay.

This makes things difficult for us: the law was not yet validated by the Constitutional Court, which fixed a new date,” added the President. Basescu insisted on the economic difficulties having to be solved first of all.

“I want you to understand very well. The first crisis we have is the economic one and the political crisis must be solved by finding means to support the economic crisis. I should say that parties have been playing with economy in the past few days, they have not considered the entire seriousness of the situation generated by them and added a political crisis to an economic one,” said President Traian Basescu.