Violent protests that erupted in January in opposition to proposed health care reforms led Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc to step down this year to alleviate social unrest. Mr. Boc's Democratic Liberal party has also lost control of the Senate and fallen to 15 percent approval rating. Austerity measures conditional to the IMF bailout Romania needs are at the root of the turmoil, but Romania's GDP is growing supposedly by 1.5% this year. This would seemingly put Romania in a considerably better situation that (say) Greece. However, instability in the government and low approval ratings are sure to make any foreign investor nervous and are bad for domestic business too.
Boc might have saved the country from collapse by essentially turning the government over to the opposition party. The decision to privatize some sort of emergency medical system, which was unpopular enough to prompt fires in the streets and fighting with police, might have been better presented to the Romanian people, or possibly could have been implemented incrementally.
Bob Hartzer
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/02/romanian-politics
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