Romanian parliament approves new government

The Romanian parliament Tuesday approved the reformist, centre-right government of Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu, who has pledged to fight corruption and get the former communist nation into the European Union, parliamentary officials announced.

The vote was a clear majority of 265 in favor and 200 against, with four deputies absent, rubber-stamping the centre-right coalition formed after legislative elections November 28.

The coalition was backed by new rightist President Traian Basescu, who insisted on his Justice and Truth Alliance DA party running the new government, even if it did not win the most votes in the general elections.

Leftist Social Democrats have ruled a corruption-riddled Romania for 11 of the 15 years since the fall of communism in 1989.

Basescu is to swear in the new government Wednesday.

Tariceanu said after parliament approved his government in the evening after five hours of debate: "The opposition has of course the right to criticize us but we all have a common objective -- the prosperity of Romanians."

The 24-member government is made up of Tariceanu's DA party, the ethnic Hungarian Union of Magyars party (UDMR) and the Humanist Party (PUR), giving it 242 seats in the 469-deputy parliament.

"Today ends the transition to a market economy and begins the process of modernizing the country, a process closely linked to joining the European Union," Tariceanu, 52, had told parliament ahead of the vote.

He said priorities would include "fighting corruption, guaranteeing freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary."

Romania is seeking to join the EU in 2007 but must carry out major reforms to fight corruption and guarantee fair trials if it is to succeed.

Tariceanu said another priority "will be lowering taxes and increasing pensions, with a rise of 30 percent by 2008."

Tariceanu is seeking to institute a flat income tax of 16 percent, instead of the current system of three bands rising to 40 percent, and a reduction of the rate of profits tax from 25 percent to 16 percent.

Tariceanu said earlier this week that this must be adopted before the end of this year so that it could take effect from January 1, 2005.

Otherwise the reform would have to wait another year, until January 1, 2006. Such a delay carried the risk "of disillusion for the people who want to see taxes cut quickly", he said.

Tariceanu was appointed after Bucharest Mayor Basescu won presidential elections December 12, defeating Ion Iliescu who had ruled Romania as a Social Democrat for 11 of the 15 years since the execution in 1989 of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Basescu, 53, said Monday that most of the new cabinet was made up of people "educated and trained after the December 1989 revolution" and that this should help eliminate the corruption that plagued previous post-communist Romanian governments.

The Social Democrats (PSD) have charged that Basescu is going against the will of the people expressed in general elections November 28 in which the PSD had the most votes.

Basescu insisted however on forming a government coalition around his DA party in order to institute the reforms he seeks.

Basescu won 51.23 percent of the vote against 48.77 percent for outgoing Social Democrat Prime Minister Adrian Nastase in the presidential elections.

But in the legislative elections, the Social Democrats were the strongest party with 37 percent, compared to 31 percent for Basescu's alliance.

The Romanian press underlined Monday the relatively young age of the proposed government.

It is "the youngest since the revolution," with economics minister-delegate Codrut Seres, 35, parliamentary relations minister-delegate Bogdan Olteanu, 34, and foreign minister-delegate Razvan Ungureanu, 35, the newspaper Evenimentul Zilei said.

The Romania Libera daily said Basescu was committed to having in government only people who had not been compromised in corruption scandals.