BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romania’s leftist opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD) is betting the global financial crisis will help it win a November 30 parliamentary election as voters fear for their jobs and the economy.

Surveys show the PSD’s popularity has risen in recent months to over 30 percent, putting a party once damaged by corruption scandals in close second place behind their centrist rivals, the opposition Democrat-Liberal Party (PD-L). “Center-left parties seem better prepared to cope with social pressures,” PSD President Mircea Geoana told reporters. “In times of crisis... there is a sort of subliminal inclination by the public to lean toward a party that is bringing both a sense of comfort and competence.” Several major manufacturers have announced job cuts and production stoppages over the last week, giving Romanians a foretaste of the economic slowdown widely expected next year.

The PSD has aggressively promoted pay rises for the public sector and pension hikes in the runup to the vote. All major groups center their campaigns on welfare spending. The PSD is unlikely to win enough seats to govern alone and would have to overcome policy differences with the PD-L or with the ruling Liberal Party to form a coalition. “The PSD has profited from the world crisis, it advocated pension hikes and made sure they were implemented,” said Mircea Marian, senior editor at Evenimentul Zilei daily.

The PSD, heir to the Communist Party toppled in the bloody 1989 revolution, governed Romania for all but eight years since then. Critics accused it of slowing down the country’s post-communist transition in the early 1990s. The party won support among poorer Romanians fearful of faster reforms, but saw its popularity drop to below 20 percent in 2006 after a series of graft scandals involving top officials. Some observers say the party’s participation in a future government could slow down further justice reforms.

“The fight against corruption will be buried,” said Marian.

Economists say the party may be less likely than its centrist rivals to ensure the fiscal restraint needed to correct Romania’s vast economic imbalances. Two ratings agencies downgraded Romanian credit to below-investment grade in recent weeks, making it the only EU state with “junk” status, and criticized its budget plans. The next government is likely to face a tough choice between reviving an economy likely to slow sharply from growth rates of as much as 9 percent, and keeping spending down.

Geoana said the PSD would impose strict budget rules and a “transparency tsar” to monitor spending.

But he said the PSD was also preparing a “fiscal stimulus” plan based on tax cuts for the poor and for small companies and manufacturers, and hikes in below-average pensions and salaries.