Basescu denies joining PDL after end of term, vows to ‘build’ the Right

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In an interview for Digi24 TV , the President said in PDL there were two men who could successfully fight with Crin Antonescu in the 2014 presidential election.

While he denied intentions of going back into PDL, the president made numerous comments on the internal affairs of his former party. ‘I never said I would go back into PDL’, Basescu said, noting he refused to return into a party that was burying its chances. ‘I will attend to building the Right if PDL can no longer to that’, Basescu said. He took the chance to attack current PDL President Vasile Blaga yet again. Blaga is competing for a new term with ex-Tourism Minister Elena Udrea supported by Traian Basescu, and with ex-Justice Minister Monica Macovei. ‘I am very fond of Blaga, but now I’m telling him ‘Stop! You are sinking PDL and I wouldn’t like that to happen’. Vasile has no more growth potential left. Probably, his potential overlapped with mine, because we are from the same generation’, the president said on Digi24TV. He confessed he would have liked the former prime vice president, currently MEP Cristian Preda to be one of the candidates for president of PDL. Basescu also said Elena Udrea could be a solution for PDL, as she had growth potential. He added that Monica Macovei could also be a solution if she demonstrated she can stay next to the party, as she is the symbol of anti-corruption fight. Traian Basescu also commented on the recent defections from PDL. He admitted he had been surprised at Mihai Stanisoara’s parting with PDL to move to PNL, adding that the assumption that he could give the Liberals access to intelligence services was out of the question, the best thing he could do being, according to Basescu, to get them some kind of Free Masonry support, as both he and Sorin Frunz?verde are on ‘that line’. Asked if he had also been supported by the Free Masonry, given that he had been elected Bucharest mayor and president twice, Basescu denied it: ‘I don’t think I have ever benefited from that, or I was not aware of that, but… let’s get serious!’ Basescu confessed he and Stanisoara had worked well together when he was his security adviser at Cotroceni and also when he was Minister of Defence. The president said at some point he even expected Stanisoara to run in the PDL internal election.

‘I am convinced USL will support Antonescu in 2014, he has chances

’In the same interview, Traian Basescu said USL had been a successful alliance and that he was convinced the Union would support Crin Antonescu’s candidacy in the 2014 presidential election and that he had chances to win. On the other hand, the president said ‘in PDL there are two people, both men, who can successfully fight with Antonescu in the presidential poll in 2014 because they are intellectually superior to him and also because they have experience’. ‘It’s an extraordinary chance for PDL, if it relaunches and cleans itself up, to produce a strong candidate for president’, Basescu said. In the interview, the president admitted to having ‘pushed and forced the Constitution to the limit’. ‘I used it to the limit, as it would have been impossible to do it otherwise’, he said. According to Basescu, Romania needs not a new republic, but needs to keep the institutions created by the current Constitution which is a modern one.

‘I have nothing against Relu Fenechiu’

President Traian B?sescu further said he had nothing against Transport Minister Relu Fenechiu, however adding: ‘I am just looking at how our Schengen entry can be blocked for a single person and a handful of MPs’. Asked if Romania had missed the Schengen train this time because Fenechiu was still in the Government, Basescu said it was not only that, as the CVM report had raised several questions.  He said that, in what regards the support for Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen on last week’s JAI Council, the ‘certain’ thing was that 13 member states had been in favour and three opposed our entry, but the situation would have been different if it had come to the actual vote. The president explained those countries’ opposition regarding Schengen had to do with the CVM and not so much with the ‘poverty immigration’ issue. Basescu pointed out that, lately, he had been in touch with Chancellor Merkel’s office through his European affairs advisers who agreed on the final communication on the JAI Council. Asked about USL’s criticism on the fact that PDL and he had not used their good relations with Germany to get the benevolence of the Berlin Federal Government, Basescu said it was a ‘Balkan-like’ approach that never applies in Europe.

‘Premier could assume chief-prosecutor nominations’

Traian Basescu also said he would thank God if Mona Pivniceru was appointed to the Constitutional Court as the prime minister could, as interim justice minister, assume his own nominations for prosecutor general and DNA chief. Asked if he would agree with Tudor Chiuariu’s appointment to the Ministry of Justice the president said he would agree with any minister proposing chief-prosecutors with a solid background. Basescu further said the process could not be continued down the Pivniceru line, with a new competition that could take at least