In an interview for ‘Romania Libera,’ Foreign Affairs Minister Andrei Marga stated that the faster Crin Antonescu becomes President “the better that will be” for Romania. He added that “it is not ruled out” for this to happen before the 2014 Presidential elections. Asked what would be the effect of President Traian Basescu’s impeachment on foreign policy, the minister answered: “Romania needs new impulses, new policies and that is why the recent change of government was opportune and necessary. Profound changes in today’s Romanian politics, changes in the direction you mentioned, can have beneficial effects on having the country’s energies up and running again.” Likewise, asked whether he opts for impeaching the President before this autumn’s Parliamentary elections, Marga gave a diplomatic answer: “At this hour we are preoccupied with resolving very concrete problems.” Andrei Marga also stated that he does not admire Vladimir Putin and that the Ponta Government can have better relations with Russia, the letters that Moscow sent to Bucharest already including “significant sentences” that suggest “a more ample relationship.” The Foreign Affairs Minister also stated that the American officials he recently met did not reproach him for the fact that the governing programme includes a moratorium against Chevron. “It is not against Chevron,” the minister said. “The government was referring to the consequences of exploitations and using the mentioned technologies. The issue at stake is related to the technologies and their costs in terms of health and environment,” Andrei Marga stressed.PDL First Vice President Teodor Baconschi stated that the minister’s statement about President Basescu’s impeachment is “an enormity,” adding that it endangers Romania’s image in front of foreign investors, NATO and the EU. “You can make such statements as a member of the opposition (as a statement of Parliamentary politics), as a voter (while drinking beer) or as a grandfather by the fireplace. However you do not have the right to pour forth such an enormity as acting Foreign Minister. Even in situations of cohabitation. Because everything you say while in office is perceived by the international public opinion as the statement of the state, namely as Romania’s official position,” the former Foreign Affairs Minister stated for Mediafax. Baconschi claims that Marga’s statement is giving the following signal to the whole world: “After changing two governments in three months’ time, Romanian politicians plan to top the chaos with a prolonged constitutional and institutional crisis.” At the same time, Baconschi expressed his hope that “Mr. Marga’s patriotism will come out of its coma.”
