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| BETWEEN SUSPENSION AND REFERENDUM (23.04.2007) |
| (2007-04-23) |
| Last updated: 2007-04-23 14:45 EET |
Last Thursday, Parliament suspended president Traian Basescu, a first in Romania’s political history.
On Friday, Romanian president Traian Basescu said he would not resign as he had promised earlier, but that, on the contrary, he would continue to fight to return to office. The fight will most probably last until May the 19th, when Romanian voters are called to the ballots to decide by referendum if they still want Basescu as their president. In the meantime, he will have to counteract the allegations of overstepping his constitutional powers made by the Social Democratic Party, the Greater Romania Party and the Conservative Party, in opposition, who managed to suspend the president with help from the ruling parties: the Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians. Traian Basescu’s “offensive” started as early as Sunday, in the capital, in the presence of more than 5,000 supporters from Bucharest and other regions of the country. They chanted pro-Basescu slogans and booed the 322 parliamentarians who voted in favour of the president’s suspension. In fact, by accident or not, the stage from which Basescu spoke to his supporters was placed so that the people had their backs to the Parliament building.
“What have I done wrong to upset this group of 322 parliamentarians? I asked for a highly performing education system. Was I wrong then? No, I wasn’t! I asked for a health care reform in the best interest of the people. Was I wrong then? No, I wasn’t! I condemned the crimes of communism. I had the files of the former Securitate transferred to the Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives so that no one in this country can be blackmailed any more. Was I wrong then? No, I wasn’t! I cautioned the government when it was not doing its job properly when Romania was affected by flooding. I cautioned the government when it spread panic about bird flu. I asked Parliament to introduce the uninominal voting system in elections. Was I wrong then? No, I wasn’t!”
Basescu also reminded people that he did not feel guilty for his actions, for their goal was Romania’s modernisation and people’s welfare. He asked the people to continue to have faith in him, assuring them that once back in office, he would be the same active president defending the interests of all Romanians. In the meantime, the speaker of the Senate, Nicolae Vacaroiu, who is acting as interim president, is creating his own team of advisors, after part of Traian Basescu’s team decided to take a leave of absence until the referendum, while the president’s spokesperson resigned. Let’s find out the intentions of the interim president, Nicolae Vacaroiu:
“I won’t be calling the Anti-Corruption Department or the General Prosecutor’s Office. If I have something to say, I will go to the Higher Magistracy Council and the High Court of Justice and say it. All these institutions need to do is do their duties, they don’t need to be called and pressured. However, when there are problems, the president is obligated, under the Constitution, to mediate, to caution and to criticise, nothing more.”
The daily Evenimentul Zilei recalls that Romania’s suspended president Traian Basescu cannot be impeached unless 9 million people come to the ballots, and it takes half plus one of all voters, voting against Basescu for his impeachment to pass. More precisely, in the case of the record high turnout of 12 million voters, 75% of them should say Yes to the question ‘Do you agree with the impeachment of the president?”. The daily Jurnalul National spoke, however, of the most probable option, namely that if the turnout is low, the referendum is not valid, and Basescu would return to office.
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2025-04-04
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