PSD Senator Miron Mitrea (photo) has expressed in a letter addressed to the leaders of party branches his fears concerning the fraud that could take place at the extraordinary Congress scheduled on February 20. ‘My bleakest forecasts are about to come true. Mircea Geoana and his gang have started to rig the February 20 Congress. (...) The clearest proof is the way in which the party branches’ representation quota is established. In complete contradiction of the party’s statute and internal democracy, Geoana and his gang want to set the results registered in the Presidential runoff last year as the only criteria that establishes the number of delegates from each County, meaning that the criteria will consist of the votes that Geoana won with the help of PNL, UDMR, PRM and PNG. That is how Marian Vanghelie for example, the person with whom Geoana wants to lead the party in tandem, will come at the Congress with an impressive number of delegates (220 for Bucharest)...

Things are beginning to get tense in the National Liberal Party (PNL) ahead of its Congress in March, with party president Crin Antonescu announcing that he might no longer run for a new term if his proposals are not accepted. Antonescu stated on Monday evening for Realitatea TV that he might very well not run for the party’s leadership in case the Congress does not accept his proposals on the party’s platform, doctrine and strategy, nevertheless pointing out that he believes he will win the new term he has asked for. ‘It is a Congress in which the idea that I am a favorite in the race or even that I lack an opponent apart from the exotic and welcomed exception of Mr. Catarama is accredited, but it’s possible I won’t run either. This comes after an analysis. I got the chance to say it on the run. It is very possible (I might not run – editor’s note),’ Crin Antonescu stated. ‘(...) I want to be a strong hand along with the team with...

Romania does not deem necessary a basic political treaty with the Republic of Moldova, ambassador nominee Marius Lazurca told lawmakers of the foreign affairs committees during hearings yesterday. He underlined however that what is needed as soon as possible is a treaty to support Moldova’ EU accession efforts, a treaty that would confirm Romania’s support for its neighbour in the accession process.

Lazurca, who got committees’ nod as ambassador to Moldova yesterday, with 20 votes in his favour and one against, also talked about his priorities and plans on the job and underlined that bilateral ties would not be as good if Romania validated the existence of a Moldovan nation. “We see in Moldova a state with which we have linguistic, cultural and profound spiritual ties,” Lazurca said, answering a lawmaker’s request to detail his view of what “Moldovan nation” means. The diplomat underlined that in Chisinau, there is also a...

Bucharest’s budget may double if district mayor’s offices are dissolved, under a draft law on the capital’s administrative reorganisation promoted by the Interior Ministry, daily ‘Romania libera’ reported. “The City Hall budget is currently EUR 1.3 bln but the budgets of all six districts reach a total of EUR 1.7 bln. The new Bucharest would mean a total budget of EUR 3 bln,” said Save Bucharest Association’s programme director Nicusor Dan. District 6 Mayor Cristian Poteras also claims that by administrative centralisation, the capital’s budget would amount to 35 per cent of all other counties’ budgets.

According to the 2010 budget, the wealthiest administration in Bucharest is Sector 1 (run by Liberal Andrei Chiliman), with incomes of RON 1.327 bln. The second place is taken by Democrat Liberal Liviu Negoita’s District 3, with total incomes of RON 772 M. District 6, run by Democrat Liberal Cristian Poteras, comes next, with RON 739 M, followed by District 2 (independent...

At a press conference held in Bucharest, on Wednesday, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Mevlut Cavusoglu, stated that Romania’s efforts in the area of judicial reform and fight against corruption are insufficient. Cavusoglu added that PACE demands Romanian authorities continue such efforts. The PACE president wanted to encourage Romanian authorities to step up anti-graft efforts and, in particular, to reform wealth watchdog National Integrity Agency as soon as possible. He urged that judicial reforms be continued and that authorities should try to reduce the number of cases ending up before the European Court of Human Rights.

During his visit to Bucharest, Cavusoglu met with several Romanian officials, including President Traian Basescu, FM Teodor Baconschi and Parliament speakers Roberta Anastase and Mircea Geoana.

Basescu thanked the PACE president for his stance on the matter concerning the situation of Romanians and...

The Romanian general consul in Sydney, Marius Dragolea, has been recalled from post under a government decision published in the Official Journal on Tuesday, Agerpres reports. The decision adopted on Monday stipulates that Dragolea would conclude his mission in the Australian city within 90 days. Dragolea had been heading the General Consulate of Romania since March 2006, when he replaced Ovidiu Grecea in that...

The autumn parliamentary session started yesterday under a fairly tense spectre, with MPs’ activity being influenced by the announced no-confidence vote but also by the possible reshuffling of the current government, a reshuffle that will surely stir up the ruling parties. Moreover, the current session will also witness political migrations, with several Democrat-Liberals quitting the party or Independent MPs set to join PSD or PNL.

Other opposition representatives chose to join the independent group, like the Liberal Senator Constantin Cibu, who announced yesterday his resignation from PNL and adhesion to the independents.

As a consequence of the camps’ positioning within the Senate a resumption of PDL’s attacks against Social-Democrat Mircea Geoana’s Speaker of the Senate office is also expected. The Democrat-Liberals have kept trying to topple Geoana but they have not succeeded. Despite some frictions within PSD, the party’s group within the Senate remains...

Prime Minister Emil Boc was expected to present a review of the activity of each Cabinet member, as yesterday was the deadline which President Traian Basescu set for the re-evaluation of ministers’ performance. The meeting of the Democrat Liberal Party (PDL)’s parliamentary groups with the party’s National Standing Bureau was scheduled to take place at the Chamber of Deputies, starting 19:00, and, by the closing of this edition, no information reached us of the results of the meeting. The present Cabinet convened, however, in a prior meeting, before which the Minister of Development, Elena Udrea, stated that the Boc Cabinet is a capable one, but that “there’s room for improvement.”

Scenarios circulating in the past days come up with various make-ups for the Government, but there is a possibility that PM Boc will conclude that all the ministers in his Cabinet have done a good job. As a matter of fact, on Tuesday meeting, in the Cabinet meeting, the prime minister adopted a...

President Traian Basescu signed on Tuesday the decree promulgating the Law for the organisation and operation of the National Integrity Agency (ANI), the Presidential Administration informs, quoted by Agerpres. To be more exact, this is the law meant to ensure integrity in the exercise of public offices and dignities, which is to modify and expand Law 144/ 2007, referring to the founding, organisation and operation of the National Integrity Agency, as well as to modify and expand other laws. The said law was adopted in a new form by the Parliament, after provisions in the earlier text were declared unconstitutional, and the head of state called for the reviewing of the act. The Senate adopted, in the August 24 extraordinary assembly meeting, the ANI bill, in the form in which it had passed through the Chamber of Deputies a week...

In an interview with ‘Adevarul’ daily, presidential adviser Sebastian Lazaroiu claims that, in the opinion poll he had last seen, the People’s Party founded by OTV owner Dan Deaconess was rated with 20 per cent voting intentions. “It doesn’t have to be a bad sign. (…) But it is definitely a symptom we must take into account, showing that a good share of the electorate no longer find itself represented in what the four big parties – PNL, PSD, PDL and even UDMR – have to offer,” President Basescu’s adviser says. According to Lazaroiu, “if it hadn’t been for OTV and Dan Diaconescu, this People’s Party could have about 30 – 40 per cent right now,” because many are not eager to vote for it because of OTV. The sociologist thinks ‘there is a current potential of 30-40 per cent’ for a new political offer, with ‘different faces’ than those of the politicians that can be permanently seen on TV screens. “People want to see new faces. It is much easier now to promote an unknown figure, a young...

Romanian diplomats met yesterday in Bucharest for their annual meeting “Romanian diplomacy: priorities for 2011” with high ranking officials, as well as foreign diplomats to Bucharest. They were addressed by PM Emil Boc, Senate Speaker Mircea Geoana, Foreign Minister Teodor Baconski, Interior Minister Vasile Blaga, Economy Minister Adriean Videanu and Development and Tourism Minister Elena Udrea. Former president Emil Constantinescu along with former foreign ministers Teodor Melescanu, Lazar Comanescu and Mihai Razvan Ungureanu were also present.

Opening speeches varied from appeals to demands and veiled criticism.

Premier Emil Boc called on diplomats, during a rather placid speech, to lobby for Romania’s interests, stressing that this endeavour does not breach their statute. “This is the challenge the current crisis is bringing to us, to find new business partners and to find new opportunities and markets for Romania,” PM Boc said.

The head of the...

The Social-Democrats and the Liberals met yesterday in order to agree on their anti-government strategy. PNL leader Crin Antonescu announced that the two parties will jointly work on the text of the no-confidence vote motion and will file it together. He added that PNL and PSD have agreed to continue their already traditional collaboration in Parliament. In what concerns the no-confidence vote’s chances of success, the Liberal leader stated that both his party and PSD will make efforts to collect signatures: “We will all make every effort in order to convince a number of MPs or maybe political groups to join us.” At the same time, the two parties will start talks on the issue of a crisis government that would be installed “the day after” the current government falls in case the no-confidence vote goes through. While PNL and PSD have agreed that the crisis government’s members will be politically enrolled, in what concerns the PM seat, Liberals back the option of nominating an...

As the global economic crisis (which is also democracy’s crisis) increasingly affects Romania and the internal constitutional crisis (which is also a moral crisis) deepens, an ever increasing number of people reproach PSD for the lack of robust action meant to bring it back to power. Some blame cowardice, others hypocrisy. Such criticisms are unjust.

From a procedural point of view the opposition does not have sufficient votes to topple the government. Admitting that snap elections are a possibility, opinion polls are not showing that they would give PSD a comfortable majority. Thus, once again we would resort to a makeshift government able to apply a treatment of compromise to a comatose patient in need of intensive care.

The fundamental problem however remains the confusion in which Romanian society finds itself. On one hand it has not assumed responsibility for its own errors. If President Basescu’s and PDL’s policy displeases Romanians they have to recall the...

Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Baconschi stated on Monday evening for TVR that the ministry has cut its number of offices by 476 against the backdrop of the crisis. The minister pointed out that the first offices to be cut will be those that are financed but vacant, with those attached temporarily to other departments set to follow.

The cuts have also targeted secretary of state offices, reducing them to only three. Secretary of state Bogdan Aurescu will coordinate the European Affairs Department, Regional Affairs Department and Security Policies Office; Doru Costea will coordinate the Strategic Affairs Department and the Globalisation Department and Anton Niculescu will coordinate the Communications Department. Against the backdrop of a possible reshuffle, Baconschi was asked whether he is worried he might lose his job. Quoting Pope John Paul II, Baconschi answered: “Non abbiate paura (don’t be afraid, editor’s note) Pope John Paul II said in Italian from the balcony of...

Opposition Social-Democrats and Liberals argue, in unison, that there is a good chance for the no-confidence vote to pass and call for replacing the Boc Government, or even a potential impeachment of President Traian Basescu, if the latter opposes their nominee for the prime minister position. The two opposition parties are unable, however, to reach a consensus on what will follow the no-confidence vote. Moreover, the Social Democrat Party (PSD) claims the prime minister office, a proposal which the National Liberal Party (PNL) is not favourable to, as they would prefer to appoint an independent in this position.

PSD leader Victor Ponta claimed yesterday, after meeting with Social-Democrat MPs, that the head of state has to be sanctioned by impeachment. “What we can really change, we will change in Parliament: we have to bring down the Boc Government, to support a Government which can halt these measures adopted by the Boc Cabinet and pave the way for early elections,” Ponta...

PSD has new group leaders in Parliament

PSD’s political groups in Parliament yesterday dicussed their new leadership. Mircea Dusa was elected as the new head of the party’s political group in the Chamber of Deputies and Ilie Sarbu (father-in-law of party president Victor Ponta) as the head of the PSD and PC’s groups in the Senate. The current PSD group leader in the Senate, Ion Toma, was proposed the secretary position which he has turned down. As for the leader of PSD deputies, Viorel Hrebenciuc, he stressed it had been his idea not to compete for the position again for the reason that he had no more time left for his work on the European Affairs Committee. Hrebenciuc said he would continue to be the deputy leader of the PSD group in the Chamber of Deputies and that he would continue to be involved in the group’s activity. Asked if PSD had not lost a political negotiator when losing him in the position he had held in the last 10 years, Hrebenciuc said: “No, I will...

The meeting with Basescu came after Emil Boc and several leading members of PDL met yesterday morning at the Victoria Palace to talk matters before the new parliamentary season and to analyze the activity of the Cabinet members, which the prime minister will present today before the PDL parliamentary groups. The National Standing Bureau (BPN) of PDL decided, on Monday, that the party’s parliamentary groups will meet the party leaders on Wednesday afternoon, at the House of Parliament, where the prime minister will present an evaluation of the activity of the Government and of ministers. President Traian Basescu may also attend the meeting. Prime Minister Emil Boc (photo) told, on Monday evening, everyone present at the BPN meeting of PDL that, after presenting the ministers’ evaluation report, he will listen to points of view and, after conferring with the president, will come up with proposals for Cabinet members. Sources in PDL stated, on Monday, for Mediafax, that the prime...

Tomorrow is the deadline set by President Traian Basescu, by which ministers are to re-structure their ministries, and, since there has been no official announcement of who passed the evaluation, or whether any evaluation was made, the press started circulating lists of nominees for a reshuffle. Yesterday a meeting of the ruling coalition was held at Victoria Palace, but no information related to the talks had been made public up to the closing of this edition. Sure enough, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) and the independents argue no one is to be replaced out of their midst, so the only candidates for a reshuffle remain the ministers backed by the Democrat Liberal Party (PDL).

The Democrat-Liberal camp is split on the matter, as some members stick by Prime Minister Emil Boc, while others continue to criticise, ever more vehemently, the Cabinet’s performance. The president of the PDL Women’s Organisation, Sulfina Barbu, stated yesterday that PM Boc should...

National Liberal Party leader Crin Antonescu yesterday made an appeal to the Basescu-Udrea-Boc group to give Bucharest back to Bucharesters and therefore drop the project of turning the capital city into a “fiefdom”. Antonescu maintains that the Democrat Liberal Party (PDL) is preparing a project aimed at disbanding Bucharest sectors so that the General Council of the Bucharest Municipality becomes the decision-making authority over the funds allocated to the city. Antonescu views such amendment to the local public administration law as an act against the spirit of the Constitution. “We remind these people that Bucharest belongs neither to Elena Udrea, not to her husband or Traian Basescu, but to Bucharesters and the entire Romania. We summon the PDL to give up on its project of turning the Capital into a ‘fiefdom’,” Antonescu told a press conference on Monday. ...

Despite being warned against voicing criticism against the ruling party and the government, PDL MEP Cristian Preda, a fervent faultfinder of the Boc Cabinet and an advocate of reshuffling, continues to attack PM Emil Boc whom he accuses of being arrogant. “Unfortunately, there are now voices in the Government that are just as arrogant as those during the Adrian Nastase regime were. Mihai Seitan, for example, who tells us the things that we heard. And even Emil Boc, who said ‘Where did you see the queues?’ This arrogance is the same as Adrian Nastase’s. I am sorry to have to say this. It is not something you can convince with. It just isn’t! It’s an illusion to believe that you can,” Preda says in an interview with ‘Adevarul’ daily. Preda thinks the deadline of September 1 for the evaluation of the work of the government is no longer valid, because “the government has received an unhoped-for help from PSD, who set the date of the motion on October 16.” “It is a godsend for the...

Baconschi welcomes Portugal support for Romania’s Schengen accession

Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi met Pedro Manuel Carqueijeiro Lourtie, the Portuguese State Secretary for European Affairs, for formal talks in Bucharest yesterday. This provided the head of Romanian diplomacy with the opportunity of welcoming Portugal’s support for Romania’s access to the Schengen area, including the view the process should not be tied to other issues. According to a release by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two diplomats also approached the stage of bilateral cooperation and that of their cooperation in the European Union. The Romanian FM stressed the existing potential toward boosting economic cooperation between the two states, sending an encouraging signal for an enhanced presence of Portuguese investors on the Romanian market.

Romania gives R. Moldova 200 tonnes of humanitarian aid

Romania is going to send to R. Moldova 200 tonnes of...

The National Executive Committee (CExN) of the opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD) approved, yesterday, unanimously, the decision to file a no-confidence motion, and PSD leader Victor Ponta announced that details related to the no-confidence vote calendar would be set subsequently. “I propose a principle vote on adopting as our main target opposing, by any means, the Basescu-Boc regime, and this spells a no-confidence vote. We are entitled to only one no-confidence vote this session, and we will decide on the date and text for it together, in a subsequent meeting,” Ponta said. Sources in the board of PSD stated, quoted by Mediafax, that the best window for filing the no-confidence vote would be immediately after the October 16 National Council, when PSD will also launch its governing programme. Other voices in the party claim that the time of the no-confidence motion would be set also pending on a potential reshuffle of the Boc Cabinet.

Social-Democrats are determined,...

PNL’s Standing Delegation met in Mamaia, on Saturday, authorising President Crin Antonescu to put together a shadow cabinet in two to three weeks, so that the Liberals can come up with a clear ruling alternative in front of the voters. “We need to decide what we want, if we want to keep on doing politics the way it has been done so far, meaning somewhere in the area of petty deals that do not hurt or truly compromise anyone, or if we want to do a different kind of politics,” Antonescu said. As for the criteria for choosing the members of the alternative government, the PNL leader said “they are people for whom what matters most is not the party membership or its length, but their professional prestige.” “My place at the top of this team will be as a guarantor that these people are backed by a party but are not a party’s clients. They do not necessarily need to be PNL members,” Antonescu explained.

Basescu threatened with impeachment

Antonescu advocated the...