Countdown to referendum begins

With the referendum rapidly approaching, suspended president Traian Basescu has less than a week to convince the electorate that he should remain in office until 2014.

Shortly after leaving Cotroceni Palace, Basescu settled in at his campaign headquarters on 9 Comanita St. where he will stay until the referendum.

The symbol of Basescu’s electoral campaign is the democracy flame, a torch which he lit during a meeting of support in Cluj.

“We thought that since today, a flame will burn until July 29^th. It will be called the Democracy Flame and will be taken throughout the country by young right-wing people,” said Basescu at that time.

The flame should reach Bucharest during the last meeting for Basescu’s support, before the referendum. There is also a facebook page for Flacara Democratiei, which at the moment has about 10,000 likes.

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The suspended president’s campaign has a strong online component. Basescu’s official page, with the slogan “Defend the European Romania” is updated with the latest news about his media appearances and comments to latest events.

Basescu is also present on the social media, posting on twitter and starting a facebook page called Esti suparat pe Basescu?, which invites people to express their discontent, promising he would answer within 24 hours while two or three of the received messages will receive a video answer every day. The videos should be published every day at 18:30.

Some outdoors attacking some of Basescu’s major enemies, the Romanian parliamentarians or former MP and Dan Voiculescu, founder of the Conservative Party (part of the ruling coalition), can be seen across Bucharest. The outdoor boards have an extension online, at this link.

No information is yet available about what agency is behind Basescu’s current campaign and from what funds it is financed.

This week-end, PM Victor Ponta told the media that he suspects the suspended president that “in 2009 as well as now, he uses illegal funds for the electoral campaign.” The statement was made in relation to Ponta’s proposal to make public the contract signed by the Romanian state and the Rosia Montana Gold Corporation, adding that Basescu is “directly interested in various businesses in Romania. The only solution is to find out what those interests are and make those contracts public, and eventually to learn whether money from various businesses went into Traian Basescu’s campaign.”

Otilia Haraga