Early elections, no longer a priority for PSD

The early elections issue seems forgotten for the time being. This process is no longer a “priority” for the ruling party, therefore it will not be included among PSD (Social Democrat Party)’s priorities for 2003, the general secretary of the party Cozmin Gusa yesterday said. The government reshuffle, which the head of state wanted done, is not a priority for PSD for the time being, either.
President Ion Iliescu in late last year said out loud what PSD had to later admit: early elections are not a priority. Only that, when arguing the decision to drop this idea, the PSD general secretary mentioned the opposition of the political parties only, leaving out the head of state.
Following a tA„a„cte-Aa€c-tA„a„cte with Adrian Nastase, Ion Iliescu was suggesting a substantial governmental reshuffle as an alternative. It looks like this hypothesis is not a matter of consequence for PSD anymore, as long as the already announced meeting between a delegation of the ruling party and Ion Iliescu in order to make a final decision is not likely to take place any time soon, although the chief of state said it would be surely held after the holidays.
“I know nothing about such a meeting set for January at Cotroceni,” Gusa said, adding the issue had not been debated yesterday during the meeting of the Permanent Delegation, PSD’s decision-making body.
Ion Iliescu has in fact repeatedly insisted a reshuffle should be done and the number of ministries should be reduced to make governance more dynamic.
Only that Nastase announced at the end of last year that no reshuffle would take place. This is how he chose to respond to the head of state’s opposition to another proposition he had made, that is having the entire Cabinet resign and a new one built around a different structure instead of early elections. The differences were supposed to be worked out during the meeting in Cotroceni, but PSD does not appear eager to organise it.
On the other hand, the ruling party leaders yesterday decided to summon the Central Executive Bureau (a body outranking the Permanent Delegation) for the end of this month. The Executive Bureau is to enact a document entitled “PSD’s political priorities for 2003”, which will not include the early elections or the reshuffle issue. This is when the decision to replace certain state secretaries or to restructure positions at this level is set to be made. The situation of the local barons involved in corruption scandals will also be on the agenda of this Executive Body, which has been postponed three times until now.
As for PSD’s 2003 strategy, it will include four chapters, according to Gusa: fiscal reform, the pension system reform, improved living standards and curbing unemployment.