Romanian president criticizes Government for higher unemployment and lower foreign investments

Romanian president Traian Basescu recently criticized the country's Government for the increasing unemployment in the country, which went up to 7.6 percent in June, with 29,000 more unemployed people in July. He also said that the direct foreign investments fell by over 19 percent in Romania in the first half of the year. “The unemployment is rising, Romanians are more concerned about their job situation and many of them are wondering whether they are going to lose their jobs. When this government took over the mandate, the unemployment in Romania, according to ESA, was 6.7 percent. In June, also according to ESA, the unemployment reached 7.6 percent in Romania,” said Traian Basescu, quoted by local news agency Mediafax. Basescu is known to be a keen critic of Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, and the relationship between the two is famously not a good one, but rather one meant to keep up appearances and stabilize the political scene. The president also added that in July, the number of unemployed people went up by 29,000 and according to his estimations the unemployment could go up to 8 percent. “It’s an extremely risky step and creating jobs is essential, and restarting investments with European funds and money from the state budget should be a priority for the Government,” he added. He also pointed out that “we risk slipping back into a difficult economic situation”, considering Romania's economic growth this year is triggered by a very good agricultural production, and not by an increasing number of jobs, which indicates “problems in the country’s macroeconomic management”. According to Traian Basescu, foreign direct investments in Romania fell by 19.4 percent in the first half of the year. Shortly after Traian Basescu’s statement, National Liber Party PNL president Crin Antonescu said that the economic issues pointed out by the Romanian president are real, but the evaluation he made of the Ponta Government is not correct, according to local news agency Mediafax. However, Antonescu himself added that he “is far from saying that the Government did everything that was supposed to be done, that it did everything well”. PNL and the Social Democrat Party PSD, led by Prime Minister Victor Ponta, are together governing Romania in an alliance called the USL - the Social Liberal Union. Pundits have warned that the USL is a fragile alliance and many expect it to break soon. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com