Victor Ponta
Source: http://www.economist.com/topics/romanian-politics
Traian Basescu, the president, and Victor Ponta, the prime minister, are attacking each other mercilessly. It all started a month ago, when both expressed their interest in attending the European Council in Brussels. The parliament voted for Mr Ponta to attend. Yet Mr Basescu asked the Constitutional Court to state who has the constitutional right to go to Brussels on behalf of Romania. The court said on June 27th that it is Mr Basescu. Mr Ponta retorted shortly afterwards that he was expecting the court's judges to take this decision because they are controlled by Mr Basescu. He added that Mr Basescu controls not just this institution, but also other public institutions. (He didn't specify which ones.)
Mr Ponta upped the ante suggesting that his ruling alliance might start the procedure to suspend Mr Basescu. “Romanians must decide if they want to go with President Basescu and his five judges or if they want to go with us, on a different road”, he said. He ignored the court's decision and flew to Brussels on June 28th. Mr Basescu had sent him a letter a few days earlier, warning him that if he decides to go without his approval, this would be considered “a breach of a constitutional right belonging to the president”. However, Mr Ponta said that this was a conflict not between the government and the president, but between the president and parliament, as parliamentarians had voted for him to represent Romania in Brussels.
The battle between Romania's two top politicians has monopolised the country's public debate. The European Council's hot issues for Romania, such as the access to structural funds and Schengen membership, receded in the public debate. Even Andrei Marga, the foreign minister, was incapable of presenting the country's official agenda. When asked by a Romanian newspaper to explain Romania's standpoint in Brussels, his spokesman said Mr Marga didn't have enough time to “process the information”.
Why is it so important who represents Romania at the European Council? From Brussel's point of view, it doesn't matter much whether it's the president or the prime minister who represents Romania, as the country doesn't have a big influence on the council's decisions. However, Mr Ponta's participation could be seen as a sign of another political power gaining control in Romania. Mr Basescu is known to have close relationships with the centre–right Democrat Liberal Party, which recently shifted to the opposition. Mr Ponta became prime minister in April with his alliance of social democrats and liberals. He is known for his centre-left politics.
The war over who goes to Brussels is symptomatic of an internal fight between the Democratic Liberals and the Social Democrats. Mr Ponta was recently accused by Nature, a science magazine, of plagiarising his doctoral thesis, which he strongly denied. He accused Mr Basescu of being behind the allegations and asked an ethics commission to look into the accusations. No matter what the commission's findings will be, he is not willing to resign. In an interview with our correspondent Mr Ponta admitted that Romania is currently dealing with a credibility crisis at an international level. The quarrel at the political top is not helping. Mr Ponta believes that the fight will not end until parliamentary elections this autumn, when Romania is likely to change government yet again.
How is this crisis affecting Romania in the meantime? The Leu, Romania's currency, fell very close to an all-time low against the euro. The political infighting could also influence Romania's chances to become a member of the Schengen agreement this year. Romania's top politicians seem to have already forgotten why thousands of people protested in freezing temperatures at the beginning of this year.
Crin Antonescu
Interim President Crin Antonescu hailed on Wednesday getting back to normality and the major steps taken along the way of communication between the European Commission and the Bucharest authorities.
“What is most important now and makes us glad is that we are getting back to normal from this point of view as well, major steps are taken forward on the way of communication, on the path of understanding from the European Commission about what happens or does not happen in Romania, about the intentions of the current politicians of Romania, and on the other hand of the understanding by the Romanian Government and us all of the natural criteria and demands of the EU and of the European Commission.
I also hail the effort the EC President made obviously in the report he presented today to resume this normal communication and I hail the effort made by the Romanian Prime Minister and his Government to give consistency and continuity to this essential dialogue,” said Crin Antonescu in a statement made at Cotroceni Palace.
He reasserted that Romania is not and will not be isolated and that in a near future it will be a country more and more connected to the European standards and demands.
“We must reassert against those who try to panic the citizens of Romania that the country is not and will not be isolated. With or without these mechanisms of monitoring that are to continue, Romania will be in the near future a more and more European country, more and more connected to the demands, standards and mechanisms of Europe,” Antonescu said.
He added that both the European Commission and the President of the Commission explicitly reassert the values and principles the Bucharest authorities “totally agree on,” in the justice report presented on Wednesday by the EC.
“It is in total compliance with what we all here believe in Romania, the majority, the opposition, the Government, the interim president, to reassert the principle of the total independence of justice from the political factor, the respect for Constitution and the constitutionality of the laws, and also to respect the decisions of the Constitutional Court, the limit between the political game and observing those fundamental rules of democracy and the state of law.
There has not been any divergence in this matter. On the other hand, there are a number of evaluations on the recent political life in Romania, about which the opinions are still shared and I maintain my views on the matter and the doubts in some cases, which I said when I talked about this report,” Crin Antonescu added.
The Interim President Antonescu: I shall be directly involved in Referendum’ campaign
PM Victor Ponta announced that the referendum for President Basescu’s impeachment would last one day, but the voting program would be extended, the election offices being open from 7.00 to 23.00.
Here are the main statements of Interim President Crin Antonescu:
- Beyond what politicians and journalists said about the report, I want to say that in the European Commission’s report, the Commission and the President reaffirm several values and principles that we all agree on. It is in full concordance with what we all believe in here, in Romania. I reaffirm the principle of Justice’s complete independence of the political factor.
- There exist a number of valuations with different opinions and in this respect I keep my own valuations, considerations, reservations.
- Important steps are made for a good communication and for the European Commission to understand what is happening in Romania, as well as for the Romania’s Executive to understand the criteria and the natural exigencies of EC.
- We must affirm once again that Romania is not and will not be isolated. Without the monitory mechanisms, Romania will be a country more and more connected to the European standards and requirements.
- Romania has a serious problem at which solutions must be found, being more active in EU. We must prepare and send competent people to Brussels, able to find proper solutions and to actively try to implement them at Brussels institutions.
- Romania must become an actor in the European Union.
- Romania has economical problems related both to society’s balance and to public funds administration. I congratulate the Executive for starting to take measures in this respect.
- I hope this will be the first Government that attacks the extremely powerful clientage networks. The Executive is preparing an extremely important audit at each ministry; we must stop this mechanism of misspending public money.
- I fully support the Executive in these actions.
- In the remaining days until the referendum I shall directly and openly be involved in the campaign. I shall appeal with all my means for Romanians participation at the referendum and for explaining this referendum’s object.
- No matter how much this would be liked or disliked, I announce my intention of intensively taking part at the referendum campaign.
- I hope we shall not have a president that states that he’s got information about criminal records anymore.
- I think it is a good rule that the referendum’s program will be 7.00 – 23.00, as it was decided by the Lower Chamber today.
- I am an old sympathizer of Parliament’s control over all services.
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