Romanian President Stays In Office After Referendum

Romanian President Stays In Office After Referendum

After counting 98,8% of the votes expressed by Romanians at the referendum on dismissing President Traian Basescu , his victory became obvious: 74.30% of Romanians present for the polls said “NO” to Basescu’s dismissal.  

Only 24.9% Romanians voted against  keeping him in office. The results affects the parties that initiated the referendum : the Social Democratic party or PSD  and the Liberal Party or PNL.

The failure of the anti-Basescu referendum  re-ignites the scandal between the two parties. In PSD many leaders threatened MIrcea Geoana with their resignations.   On the other side, some liberals like Ludovic Orban  propose that PNL should switch to the opposition.

According to Liberal sources, yesterday’s move was aimed at placing responsibility of the PSD-PNL “alliance” to party leader, PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

Mainly, the referendum gathered city dwellers than the presidential elections in 2004, while the rural Romania was almost not interested in the matter.