Mar 30, 2006 (
In a desperate bid to reverse Basescu’s popularity trend and to stop his campaign against top level corruption, illegal acquired fortunes and money laundering some of the President opponents try to threaten his political future. Therefore, senatorial committees adopted yesterday a draft bill against the collaborators of the former Communist regime also targeting Basescu.
The bill stipulates that former Communist party officials or people who had collaborated with the communist secret police ‘Securitate’ are not allowed to run for public positions.
Senators debated for several hours yesterday the new amendment, proposed by Conservative Senator Gavrila Vasilescu, according to which former navy commanders (who served under the Communist regime) would not be allowed to run for public offices. Such a provision is directly targeting
The initial draft of the anti-communist law stipulated that former presidents, judges and prosecutors who had been collaborators or informers of the former communist secret police, Securitate, would have to resign from the public positions they hold. The provisions also referred to ambassadors of the communist regime, former employees in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and former counselors, if they had relations with the ‘Securitate’.
The bill was proposed by the National Liberal Party, but several amendments were included, the most important being Senator Vasilescu's (Conservative) suggestion, which stirred a lively debate yesterday in the Senate.
Vasilescu said that his proposal is aimed at targeting all people who have collaborated with the former secret police, and, that is why he added the ‘former navy commanders’ to the previous agreed upon list.
However, journalists, and several senators suggested that the amendment was introduced as an attempt to obstruct President Traian Basescu, who was a ship commander, from running for a second term as President in 2009.
The fact that such a provision was passed by the Senate committees shows that Social-Democrats (in opposition) but also Liberals and Conservatives (in the ruling coalition) are all against President Basescu. There is no surprise in such solidarity as prominent members of these political parties above are currently being prosecuted in corruption cases – which brings us to the conclusion that this anti-Basescu initiative was rather intended to force the President to take one step behind and be more permissive regarding some corruption cases concerning, let’s say, Adrian Nastase (SocDem), Dinu Patriciu (Liberal) or George Copos (Conservative).
PM Tariceanu gives mixed media statements while President is abroad
This week, Liberal PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu repeatedly made public statements transparently targeting the President, as Basescu is abroad - first for an official visit to China and now to attend the EPP congress in Rome (March 30-31).
Thus, Liberal PM Calin Popescu-Tariceanu publicly showed disagreement with the Democrat nominee Corneliu Turianu – who was elected as head of the “National Council for Studying the Securitate Archives” (CNSAS) – and asked the Democrat Party to make him resign in order to give the office to Constatin Ticu Dumitrescu, as supposedly agreed upon by the Democrat-Liberal Alliance. Some media analysts supported Tariceanu’s request and said that President Basescu secretly pushed Turianu forward.
Yet, PM Tariceanu fired another dispute with President Basescu as he nominated the Home Affairs Sate-Secretary Paul Dobre for the office of minister for Govt.-Parliament relationship. Basescu said that the nomination does not enjoy his own agreement as Dobre is now a too experienced public servant in disaster management and it would be not a proper move to make him quit his present office.
Recent opinion polls might have frightened Tariceanu ant his fellow Liberals
It is likely that Tariceanu’s step forward into the media lights was triggered by the latest opinion polls showing an increased popularity for both President Traian Basescu and the Democrat Party. Possible early polls this autumn would seriously shake the present power balance as Conservatives might not enter the parliament and as Tariceanu’s Liberals might significantly drop in votes and lose the Govt. leadership or even worse – i.e. they might join the opposition seats.
The INSOMAR opinion poll released yesterday shows that only 35 per cent of the Romanians are satisfied with the Govt’s activity. On the other hand, if elections are to be held next Sunday, the Democrat-Liberal 'D.A. Alliance' would obtain approx 49 per cent of the votes, PSD – 20 per cent, PRM – 14 per cent, UDMR – 6 per cent and PNG – 4 per cent.
President’s Traian Basescu popularity is increasing at app. 65 per cent, with a slight upward trend as compared to the previous opinion poll (2 per cent). As a whole, the “credibility” indicator shows a major downward curve, which points to the electors’ strong rejection message against the political class. The only exception is registered by Gigi Becali – PNG leader and owner of football club ‘Steaua Bucharest’.
The INSOMAR survey was conducted during March 22 and 27, 2006, on a sample of 1,178 people. The error margin is 3 per cent.
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