Ludovic Orban will run against Crin Antonescu for PNL presidency. The Liberals seem open to ‘friendship’ with PC, but consider that PSD might get back to power in a coalition with the Democrat-Liberals.

Ex Labour Minister Marian Sarbu on Friday became the fifth lawmaker who quit the Social Democrat Party in the wake of the opposition party’s congress in which Victor Ponta was elected new president of the organization. On Friday morning Sarbu had a meeting with Ponta, after which he told a press conference that he “needed” to leave the party.

Sarbu said that he would probably join the group of independent lawmakers in Parliament and the future party they want to set up. Sarbu also denied speculation that he had negotiations with the Democrat Liberals to obtain the Labour portfolio, but he did not rule out, during a TV talk-show, the possibility to take the office one again.

The Conservative Party (PC) yesterday elected...

PM Emil Boc decided to fire both Marius Oprea from his position as leader of the Institute for Communism Crimes Investigation and Dan Zamfirescu from his chief of the Institute for the Romanian Exile Memory job. The premier instead named politologist Ioan Stanomir as executive president of the Institute for Communism Crimes Investigation and Romanian Exile Memory. Also, Vladimir Tismaneanu, who headed the Presidential Commission on the analysis of communist dictatorship from Romania will from now on assume the job as Scientific Council of the Institute on the investigation of communism crimes and Romanian exile memory.

In a Parliament discourse, President Traian Basescu condemned the Romanian communist regime in December 2006, qualifying it as illegitimate and criminal.

Basescu based his approach on a report drafted by a presidential commission headed by Vladimir Tismaneanu.

The government has recently decided that the Institute on the Investigation of...

Romania will inform all neighbours, primarily those who are EU and NATO members, of the implementation of the negotiation process and implementation of the missile defence system.

Russia accused Romania and the US of lack of transparency in the matter of the ballistic missile defence system in Europe on Friday, after Moscow had learnt from the media about decisions of principle in the field.

‘We are witnessing again rushed decisions being made in the ballistic missile defence field in Europe’, said Andrei Nesterenko, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, quoted by Mediafax.

‘We are concerned about the fact that we learn about < de principio> decisions regarding the US ballistic missile defence in Europe not from our partners in Washington or Bucharest, but from the press’ Nesterenko said. The Russian official also insisted on the fact that such an approach was inconsistent ‘with the vision of a partnership on equal...

Ex Labour Minister Marian Sarbu on Friday became the fifth lawmaker who quit the Social Democrat Party in the wake of the opposition party’s congress in which Victor Ponta was elected new president of the organization. Sarbu, who was rumoured to have considered his departure for several days, on Friday morning had a meeting with Ponta, after which he told a press conference that he “needed” to leave the party.

“I had a very calm discussion with Mr. Ponta and I expressed my opinions about what happened, especially in the last year,” Sarbu said. He added that the main reason for his decision was the fact the party did not support the pension law and unitary salary law he initiated while serving as Labour Minister in the PSD-Democrat-Liberal government last year. “I could never be efficient in social care, a field I’ve handled for the last 16 years in the party, given that sometimes, some of my colleagues ask me to be against my own...

The Conservative Party (PC) yesterday elected Daniel Constantin as the new leader replacing resigning President Daniela Popa who quit the job while choosing to be a member of the Insurance Overseeing Board. Constantin was voted with 975 nods, defeating counter candidate Petru Margineanu (398 votes). The event did not offer many surprises, ex-chief of the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture, Daniel Constantin being a clear favorite, also known to be in the entourage of founding President Dan Voiculescu. Constantin only ran against Petru Margineanu, leader of the Hunedoara Organisation. Margineanu is to be party Vice-president. The Congress changed the Statutes of the party creating a first vice-president position for District 4 Mayor Cristian Popescu Piedone as a reward for his performance in the parliamentary election. Current PC Secretary General Codrut Seres also applied for a new term.

While Daniel Constantin said that, although the party had its own...

PNL first Vice-president Ludovic Orban announced yesterday, in a press conference, that he would run for the presidency of the Liberal formation. According to Mediafax, Orban said that he wants to offer PNL a surplus of force, concrete action, a much more determined speech, more vigour and quick reactions. If he is elected president of the Liberals, Orban’s objective at the future local elections will be to win the General City Hall of Bucharest and obtain at least 12 county council presidencies.

One day before Orban’s announcement, PNL leader Crin Antonescu declared in Iasi that he encouraged him to run for the leadership of the party, and things are going in this direction, saying that it will be a congress characterized by competition, not by rupture in the party. Crin Antonescu stated that in the relation between him and Ludovic Orban it is not possible to speak about rupture, the only difference between the two being Orban’s wish to renounce the...

The group of independent lawmakers in Parliament, joined last week by leading Social-Democrat members Marian Sarbu and Cristian Diaconescu, will soon register as a new political party, which will be subordinated to President Traian Basescu, a leading PSD Senator said on Saturday. Ioan Chelaru told Agerpres news agency that by the end of the month, the group will announce the creation of a new party, under the name the Union for Progress or the National Romanian Union.

Chelaru’s comments echoed a statement made earlier last week by the independent group’s deputy leader, Eugen Nicolicea. In an interview to Realitatea FM, Nicolicea, who was a PSD member before joining the independents, said the new party would follow centre-left ideologies because the right-wing is already taken by two important parties, the ruling Democrat Liberals and the opposition National Liberal Party.

Nicolicea added that the future party will take the place left vacant by PSD because...

In an interview with TVR1, European Commission spokesman Mark Gray claims that legal system reform in Romania has been lagging behind, in the context of recent election processes.

The comment comes days before the Commission will release its interim report on Romania and Bulgaria progress in justice reform and the fight against corruption. Bulgarian media reported last week that the document will be made public after March 3, though it was initially expected by the end of February.

“We wish to make sure that it will include everything. We are also working with the Romanian government in this respect. In essence, it is a technical report that describes a stage,” Gray said. He added that the last evaluation mission, in January this year, has assessed the situation following the country’s elections, which obviously resulted in reforms lagging behind. On January 11-13, a team of experts from the European Commission was in Bucharest, as part of the...

PDL vice president Ioan Oltean said that, opposing the setting up of a commission on Constitution revision, PSD and PNL are attempting to undermine PDL’s attempt to respect people’s will expressed by referendum. Ioan Oltean declared, in a press conference, that PDL does not want the amendment of Constitution only in terms of unicameral Parliament and reduction of the number of MPs, which are actually settled through an organic law not through Constitution, it is also the supporter of a far-reaching revision of Constitution.

“This revision will include, first of all, the article from Constitution which refers to the bicameral Parliament, in order to turn it into a unicameral Parliament. We have already had the first initiatives proposing the Parliament of Romania to set up a commission on Constitution revision following the same procedural steps that we made in 2002-2003, when Constitution was revised. Unfortunately, PSD and PNL opposed this initiative trying...

Gov’t prepares regulation on Romania-Ukraine border limit

Government will discuss on Wednesday emergency regulation meant to clearly trace the border between Romania and Ukraine, in Satu Mare, Maramures and Suceava borders. By the new delimitation, a surface of 240 km of forests will be cut off, the minister of interior Vasile Blaga announced on Sunday during a Government HQ. “Careful consideration on three counties, Satu Mare, Maramures and Suceava, because we shall submit on Wednesday to Government an emergency ordinance which will make it possible to clearly delimit the border between us and Ukraine. We have to practically cut off a 20 m strip along 240 km of forest. We have to do it and we shall do it until the end of this year,” Blaga told prefects in a video conference organized on Sunday at Victoria Palace. He also recalled that the strategic objective is to fulfill the objectives of accession to Schengen Space on March 27,...

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...