ROMANIA: Corruption Concerns Split Government

By Claudia Ciobanu Reprint | | Print |

Claudia Ciobanu

BUCHAREST, May 1 2007 (IPS) - The Romanian government stands divided by differences that have emerged between the President and the Prime Minister, many of them over the issue of corruption.

Romanian President Traian Basescu was suspended by the parliament Apr. 19. Around 2,000 people took to the streets the same day to protest the decision of the legislative.

Romania is a country of 22.5 million people. In the 2004 presidential elections, roughly five million of them chose Traian Basescu to be the President.

The southeast European country is a semi-presidential republic. The president, directly elected by the citizens, appoints the prime minister who, in his turn, forms the government from the party (or coalition) that holds the majority in the legislative.

In the last elections in 2004, no party gained a clear majority. The Social Democrats (PSD, the former ruling Communist Party during the 1945-1989 dictatorship) got 37 percent of the vote.

Next in line was an electoral coalition Truth and Justice (DA) with 32 percent. DA was bringing together the Democrat Party (Basescu was a leader of this party before becoming president) and the Liberal Party (the party of the current prime minister, Calin Popescu- Tariceanu).

DA had to join forces with the Hungarian Party and the smaller Conservative Party in order to form the government. Basescu named his close ally, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, as prime minister. The Social Democrats remained the major opposition voice.

The new President expounded tough anti-corruption talk, while the Prime Minister, a businessman himself, was a staunch advocate of private initiative and foreign investments.

On Jan 1, 2007, Romania officially joined the EU. Basescu and Tariceanu were both present in Brussels to celebrate the entry. The entry could well have been delayed a year or more. The European Union had warned Romania that unless it reformed its justice system and created solid agencies to manage European funds, it would not be allowed to join.

The government made an effort to prove there is enough political will in the country for pro-European reformation. Most commended by the EU was justice minister Monica Macovei. Politically non-affiliated and enjoying a good international reputation, Macovei was credited with almost single-handedly taking the measures called for by the EU.

Among the more prominent figures investigated for corruption during her mandate were former prime minister Adrian Nastase (a Social Democrat) and Dinu Patriciu, main stockholder and manager of the largest oil company in the country, Rompetrol (a Liberal). Basescu publicly supported Macovei throughout these episodes.

While from the outside it seemed Romania was engaged on a clear path of EU-backed reforms, the leadership of the country was falling apart. Over the first two-and-a-half years since the elections, the president and the prime minister turned from close allies to bitter enemies.

The press circulated numerous anecdotes of the two travelling on different helicopters to various events, and of their staff making efforts to keep them from meeting each other.

While Basescu started posing more and more as defender of the everyman, Tariceanu kept on promoting the business elites.

Tariceanu accused Basescu of interfering with the activity of the government, while Basescu retorted that Tariceanu was a tool of the oligarchs, with an interest in stopping the fight against corruption in order to protect his friends from the business world.

On Apr. 1, the prime minister restructured the government, eliminating ministers of the Democrat Party. He also replaced justice minister Monica Macovei with Tudor Chiuariu, judicial counsellor for Relu Fenechiu, prominent businessman and member of the Liberal Party.

As the strife between the president and the prime minister toughened, the Liberal Party got closer to the Social Democrats. On Apr. 19, 332 parliamentarians, out of a total of 465, voted for suspending the president. Most of them were members of the Social Democrat, Liberal and Hungarian parties, along with representatives of the extreme right Greater Romania Party and a few other smaller factions.

Basescu had repeatedly criticised the parliament for blocking legislation in the fight against corruption.

The parliament, on the other hand, accused the president of overstepping his constitutional attributions by getting involved in the political life of the parties. However, a week before Basescu’s suspension, the Constitutional Court had ruled that the president had not breached his neutrality.

“What Macovei and Basescu have tried to do was to foster the rule of law and bring back a sense of decency in the conduct of public affairs,” Vladimir Tismaneanu, professor of political science at the University of Maryland told IPS.

People who tok to the streets Apr. 19 shared the view that Basescu was a victim of the business interests paradoxically allied with the former communist elite. While some seemed less supportive of the president than Prof. Tismaneanu, there was a general sense that the parliamentarians acted in their own interest, trying to get rid of a discomforting president.

“Even if I am not a supporter of Basescu, I came here because what the parliament did today was far from what I, as a voter, would have wanted to see happen,” said Bogdan Vasilescu, a 25-year-old philosophy graduate attending the demonstration.

According to the Constitution, a suspension vote by the parliament leaves the president with two choices. One, to call for early elections and resign. Second, to stay in office albeit suspended, in which case a referendum should take place in less than a month after the parliament issued its decision. The law says that it is only the people, who first elected the president, who can bring him down.

Basescu had promised to resign within “five minutes” of a suspension vote by the parliament. However, he changed his mind. A referendum on keeping him in function or not will take place in Romania May 19.

According to a poll conducted by the Barometer for Public Opinion in March 2007, Basescu enjoys the highest level of trust among all politicians. The survey showed 41 percent support for him from potential electors.

Aware that Basescu has strong chances of being confirmed in his position through the referendum, the parliament amended the law on such a vote Apr. 24. Earlier there was no quorum needed to confirm the president, but the new legislation says that at least nine million people should come to the ballot in order for the result to be valid.

Basescu’s mission suddenly became tougher.