http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1790442.ece The Times May 15, 2007
The phone-in president who needs people power to get his palace back Roger Boyes in Bucharest Imagine this: the Prime Minister of a large European Union nation criticises his head of state on a television chat show. Phone lines are thrown open for viewers and the first caller is . . . the angry President, telephoning from his living room sofa to harangue his premier. This is Romania which, in the claws of a dirty referendum campaign, seems determined to raise politics to dizzying heights of absurdity. The most bizarre power struggle in Eastern Europe since the fall of communism is coming to a climax this week with a popular vote on whether to impeach Traian Basescu. According to his critics, President Basescu has exceeded his constitutional role by interfering in daily politics, undermining the Government and turning the public against state institutions. In an exclusive interview with The Times, the square-jawed, 55-year-old former sea captain lashed out at his left-wing opponents, accusing them of stoking a crisis to cover up their corrupt dealings, and of pussyfooting with Russia. We meet in a borrowed villa in the heart of Bucharest, since the President has been suspended for the past month and has been evicted from the palace. "Parliament has been trying to influence prosecutors who are investigating lots of police files on top politicians," he says. "That was their game." Mr Basescu and the formidable Justice Minister, Monica Macovei, had been transforming the state prosecution service into an energetic anticorruption force to answer EU criticism that Romania is too open to sleaze. But Ms Macovei was elbowed out of the Government on April 12 and a week later parliamentarians voted by 322 votes to 108 to impeach the President. The Romanian media - some of them under the spell of oligarchs who see him as a threat - is hostile to him. On the day of our rendezvous, one newspaper has dug out an 83-year-old army pensioner who claims that Mr Basescu was handed the answers to the Marine Institute entry exam in the 1970s by a secret policeman. Another newspaper had branded him a drunk. "He is a man whose mind is most of the time affected by alcohol," wrote Ziua, "a man who mistakes the whisky bottle for the TV remote control." The President gives as good as he gets. He recently announced that parliament was a "physical wreck shortly before clinical death". In the communist days he was captain of Romania's largest oil tanker and his language is still salty. As Mayor of Bucharest, between 2000 and 2004, he garnered local popularity by ordering the slaughter of stray dogs that were terrorising dimly lit streets. Animal rights campaigners were furious and Brigitte Bardot flew to the city to protest in person. "I would rather have met her 30 years ago," said Mr Basescu with typical bluntness. The plain talking has endeared him to ordinary Romanians, and most neutral observers believe he will win the referendum on Saturday and that parliament and Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu will have to abandon their attempts to impeach him. "It's not whether I will win or not, but how I win," he said. A low turnout could encourage parliament to declare the referendum invalid and keep him suspended. Denied full media access, he is crisscrossing the country, holding rallies, and has even attended a demonstration in Spain to drum up support among Romanians abroad. Fellow EU states seem to be batting for Mr Basescu. He is pro-EU, pro-Nato, in favour of keeping Romanian troops in Iraq, is deeply sceptical about the creeping influence of Russia - and wants to tackle corruption head-on. It is, he makes clear, about making an EU state more governable. "We will have another Romania after the referendum," he promises. "It is the first time that Romanians have the opportunity to challenge a decision taken by the political class." He plans to give an ultimatum to parliament next week to introduce a new electoral law, allowing for a mix of first-past-the-post and proportional representation, to bring deputies into closer contact with voters. That, he says, will weaken the power of party leaders who are too beholden to oligarchs and industrialists. All too often, he says, these businessmen have contacts with Russia that do not serve the Romanian national interest. "Their approach is that if we keep good relations with Russia we will have lower prices for imported gas," says Mr Basescu. "I say OK, but what is the political cost for this? I want Russia to be a partner and not someone who can influence our political decisions." Although Mr Basescu lambasts the former communists (who now call themselves Social Democrats) he was himself a communist. He transformed himself, however, into a man of the centre Right and much of his power play seems designed to cobble together a pro-Western liberal conservative grouping. He is unhappy, though, with the Blair Government. "British politicans cannot say that Romanians are good in Iraq but not in Britain," he said, referring to the quota on Romanian workers. "We stand shoulder-to-shoulder in Iraq, why should we not be that way as regards the EU freedom of movement? I believe this will have to be settled after the next election." British or Romanian? "Oh Britain, definitely Britain," says the President who then busies himself to win his own vote, the one that he claims will change the face of Romania for ever. Shady dealings - Romania is the most corrupt EU country, according to Transparency International - The security service and ministers were implicated in massive cigarette smuggling racket in 1993. No one was convicted. There was a second similar tobacco scandal in 1998 - Ministers, deputies and more than 100 civil servants were accused of illegal property deals 1995, which a parliamentry report ignored - Security service and ministers were involved in breaking UN sanctions against the former Yugoslavia - Dacia-Felix Bank, heavilly backed by politicians who shielded its incompetence, goes broke - National Investment Fund, managed by ex-Securitate spies, collapses 2000. Only three executives jailed, six years later Source: Romanian press reports C Copyright Times Newspapers Ltd ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." (Carlo Goldoni) "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
