A June 2005 cable from the US Embassy, sent six months after December 2004 legislative elections, analysed the opposition, focusing on the Social-Democrat Party (PSD) and the Greater Romania Party (PRM). The cable, released by daily ‘Jurnalul National,’ looks mainly at Ion Iliescu, a leading PSD figure who was at the moment on a lower position in the party. The document notes fears that Iliescu, unhappy with the widespread corruption in the PSD, could have triggered a split and set up a new party.
The embassy also noted that a few weeks earlier, Iliescu’s former adviser on security issues and a PSD senator, Ioan Talpes, quit the party and criticised the leadership for having treated Iliescu unfairly. On the same day that he quit, Talpes had a meeting with President Traian Basescu, the document reveals. Many political sources speculated that Talpes gave Basescu information about corruption cases in PSD and about Syrian businessman Omar Hayssam, who was arrested at the moment on suspicion that he orchestrated the kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Iraq.
Daily ‘Jurnalul National’ also adds that later on, Talpes ran for Senate in a Bucharest constituency on behalf of the ruling Democrat Liberals.
