Translated material
Five minutes Basescu
Romanian parliament removes president
Yesterday, the Romanian Parliament, at a joint meeting of both chambers, voted to remove President Traian Basescu from office. 235 votes were enough to pass the proposal initiated by the opposition Social Democratic Party. In a secret ballot in the 430-seat parliament, 322 deputies voted in favor and 108 voted against.After the vote, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu called on Basescu to respect the opinion of the deputies and resign. The main points of accusation are abuse of constitutional powers, “totalitarian inclinations,” the desire to subordinate the government, secret services to one’s will, interference in justice, economic life, and even corruption.
However, Basescu, arriving last night at University Square in Bucharest, where about three thousand of his supporters gathered, declared: “I will not leave the Romanian people! Until Monday, until the decision of the constitutional court, I remain the President of Romania.” It is on Monday that the Constitutional Court will consider the parliament's decision. Basescu also warned his supporters against violent actions. He believes that they want to remove him because he “stirred up a corruption anthill” with his policies.
The political crisis in Romania began with the collapse of the coalition of the National Liberal Party and the pro-presidential Democratic Party. Prime Minister Tariceanu expelled the Democrats from the government, after which two weeks ago parliament formed a new cabinet of liberals and representatives of the Hungarian ethnic party, supported by the opposition. The president declared the cabinet “illegal,” although he was forced to approve it.
Proponents of impeachment also accused Traian Basescu of damaging the image of Romania with his foreign policy statements, which did not follow from the coalition program and were not agreed upon with parliament and the government. Deputies ridiculed his initiative to create a political “Washington-London-Bucharest axis,” which harmed Romania’s relations with EU countries, as well as his statement that Russia considers the Black Sea a “Russian lake.” The latest improvisation heard in Washington, according to the Social Democratic deputy, damaged Romania's relations with Russia and Turkey.
Local observers see the cause of the crisis in the imperfections of the Romanian political system. Voices are increasingly heard in favor of turning the country into a parliamentary republic. However, the majority of the population does not agree to transfer their right to elect the president to parliament.
If the Constitutional Court approves the parliament's decision, then within 30 days a referendum should be organized in which Romanians will express their attitude towards the president. Impeachment requires half the votes of all registered voters plus one, making it difficult to implement.
Basescu has already stated that if he is removed by parliament, he himself will resign “in a maximum of five minutes.” This presupposes holding early presidential elections within three months, for which no one except Basescu, who has the highest rating of 43%, is ready. “In this sense,” Emil Hurezeanu, editor-in-chief of the Romania Libera newspaper, told Vremya Novostei, “the political initiative once again belongs to Traian Basescu.”