Things heat up between Romanian PM and president: contradicting statements and 2014 budget likely to be sent back to Parliament

With the 2014 state budget ready to be voted by the Parliament, and with a clear refusal from president Traian Basescu to sign the memorandum of understanding for a new loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), things seem to be heating again between the Romanian president and PM. The two had a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, which resulted in conflicting official statements shortly after. While PM Victor Ponta said after the meeting the president will reject the budget and will also notify the Constitutional Court, president Basescu said the PM in fact misunderstood the topic of the meeting, which had been about the IMF memorandum, not about the budget. Ponta also said the government had requested the budget rejection and Constitutional Court notification procedure to happen within a reasonable timeline, but the president failed to agree or disagree. The president however publicly contradicted the PM, in a statement exchange which reminded of the politically heated summer of 2012. “Ponta did not understand what we discussed. He was inflexible, so I will send the budget back to the Parliament,” said the president. He added the discussion was about the fuel excises, which had been the main reason for his rejection of the IMF memorandum. "I agreed to the meeting with Ponta hoping we could discuss about the planned increase in fuel excises, which I find extremely damaging. Those with low revenues will be very affected, there will be food and transport price increases. There will be an 8 percent increase in price,” the president explained. He went on saying he would send the budget law back to the Parliament, with proposals to make cuts in certain areas, including local budgets, which are most likely to be used for election purposes. This way the planned extra income from the excise increase will not be required. “The discussion with the PM was calm and civil, but the PM left confused. We did not talk about the budget, but rather about the excise. He understood we talked about the budget. No.” the president concluded. It al started when president Basescu rejected the IMF memorandum on Tuesday.More about the story here. editor@romania-insider.com