Romania's center-right parties to form electoral alliance

BUCHAREST - The leaders of Romania's five political formations on Wednesday decided to set up soon a center-right alliance in view of the parliamentary elections at the end of this year.

The main parliamentary opposition Democratic Liberal Party, together with other four extra-parliamentary political organizations, the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party, the New Republic Party, the Right of Center Civic Initiative and the Christian-Democratic Foundation, signed a joint manifesto in this respect, proposing the "Romanian society a political platform articulated around center-right values".

According to the manifesto, the immediate goal of the alliance is to win parliamentary elections, and in the medium and long term, the mission of the "united Right" is the consolidation of the rule of law, "justice for all and prosperity for everyone".

Democratic Liberal leader Vasile Blaga pointed the finger at "the irresponsible actions" (impeachment request against the president) of the ruling Social Liberal Union which sent "Romania into the worst political and economic crisis after 1989".

Former Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, leader of the Right of Center Civic Initiative, said that the signing of this manifesto is the "first response" to the "challenge" launched by the Social Liberal Union, marking "the beginning of the real battle for a win of the Right" in the parliamentary elections due at the end of this year.

President Traian Basescu survived his second impeachment referendum and returned to the Cotroceni Presidential Palace on Tuesday.

A national referendum was held on July 29 to oust the head of state, but failed to produce the required minimum 50-percent voter turnout. Basescu and his main supporter, the Democrat Liberal Party, called for a boycott of the referendum.