Farmers initiated violent protests in front of the Agriculture and Finance ministries early in the morning. Meanwhile, interim Minister of Finance Gheorghe Pogea had to provide explanations to the Parliament for three hours during the hearings for the validation of the new government. Thus, he was unable to participate in the meeting with IMF officials, scheduled for 6:00 p.m.
The mission, which includes officials of the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission, is in Romania for the second review of the stand-by agreement, and President Basescu has already announced that he will request that the terms initially agreed upon be renegotiated, considering that Romania is not able to make the budget expense cuts it committed to.
