Romania's political chaos continues

President Traian Basescu is facing a second round of impeachment proceedings in five years, after MPs voted last week to suspend him over allegations he broke the constitution, a move civil society and opposition parties saw as part of a larger attack on Romania’s rule of law.

Ovidiu Posirca

The suspension bid comes amid a political row between the president and the government that has put policymaking on hold, despite the parlous state of the country’s economy and the looming dangers of a spillover effect from the Euro zone debt crisis. Representatives of the US and some EU members said they were paying close attention to the political crisis unfolding in Romania, urging that the country’s fundamental institutions be protected from political abuse. The Romanian Parliament decided on Friday to suspend President Traian Basescu with 256 votes in favor and 114 against.

“The major objective of this suspension is to bring the justice system under control, to bring the state institutions under the control of the parties forming the USL coalition, and ultimately not to respect the referendum that asked for a single house of Parliament and 300 MPs,” said President Basescu in Parliament last week.

Vasile Blaga, president of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (PDL), likened his dismissal from the helm of the Senate to a coup, adding that this was part of the USL’s plan to “seize” the country’s institutions. The USL is the coalition set up in 2011 by the left wing Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Liberal Party (PNL) and the center right Conservative Party (PC).

Growing tension

The Ponta government came to power in May just a few weeks before the escalation of a political row with the president, despite Ponta’s promise one week before becoming PM that relations with the president would be constitutional and institutional, not personal.

Ponta is still mired in a plagiarism scandal that broke out last month after allegations were printed in the British science magazine Nature and the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The National Council for the Acknowledgement of Titles, Diplomas and University Certificates found that 85 pages of his 307-page PhD dissertation on the international criminal court had been copy-pasted, without indication of the source. Ponta, who had said he would resign if the plagiarism allegations were substantiated, called the council’s decision a “mafia-like execution” by the opposition PDL. The PM was awarded his PhD in 2003 by the University of Bucharest, which will set up an ethics commission to see whether the plagiarism accusations are founded.

The Romanian judiciary was in the international headlines again two weeks ago, after the former PM Adrian Nastase was sentenced to two years in prison for corruption. He apparently tried to commit suicide after having his conviction upheld, but ended up with a gunshot wound to the neck after police officers arriving at his house to arrest him seemingly prevented a fatal injury. Nastase was rushed to hospital and a few days later was moved to Rahova prison, where he will serve his sentence. Ponta visited his political mentor in hospital and asked whether President Basescu was happy as a result of the incident.

Tensions between the president and the PM erupted again over a trip to the European Council in late June. The ruling coalition voted for Ponta to attend the event, while Basescu appealed to the Constitutional Court (CCR), which ruled that he should represent the country in these meetings. However, Ponta ignored the court ruling and went to Brussels, saying that a PM was more familiar with the economic issues to be discussed. The court’s decision was blocked after the official gazette, now published by the government instead of by Parliament, failed to publish it.

Threatened institution

The political bickering might have remained in-house if the CCR had not been dragged into the ongoing battle between the president and the government. International news outlets picked up the story and several countries have already said they are keeping a close eye on Romania.

The justice minister, Titus Corlatean, announced recently that two judges on the CCR should be disbarred from serving and replaced, although the National Integrity Agency (ANI) said it had no evidence regarding a possible breach of legislation in this case.

“Very concerned about the current development in Romania regarding the rule of law & the independence of the judiciary. I’ll contact V. Ponta & T. Basescu to discuss this issue,” tweeted on Friday Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, hours before the suspension vote.

Gianni Buquicchio, president of the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional law, said the independence of the Constitutional Court had to be respected by other organs of the state, which could not interfere with its independence, even if some of its decisions were not welcomed by the majority of the day. The CCR informed the commission of the political attacks in Bucharest.

The US ambassador, Mark Gitenstein, warned that the recent political developments in Romania threatened the independence of the country’s democratic institutions. “Manipulation or threats to your institutions, particularly your courts, will not only be of concern to our government but to the way Romania is viewed by financial markets,” said Gitenstein. He added that Romania was now facing a similar situation to President Franklin Roosevelt’s “court packing plan”. This was a legislative initiative proposed by Roosevelt in 1937 to add more judges to the Supreme Court in order to obtain favorable rulings.

Eventually, Ponta said last week that any complaint regarding the Constitutional Court would be dropped. However, this did not allay wider fears, as the coalition was still busy replacing civil servants with its own appointees.

Late Tuesday MPs ousted the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, who were from the PDL, replacing them with Valeriu Zgonea, PSD member, and Crin Antonescu, PNL president. The Ombudsman was also voted out. Ten Romanian NGOs asked the European Commission in a letter to urge the Romanian government and ruling coalition to stop abusing the rule of law and maintain the separation of powers. The NGOs urged the EC to start infringement procedures against Romania based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. Earlier this year the EC launched three separate infringement proceedings against Hungary based on laws it had adopted through a revamped constitution.

Impeachment process

Once he is suspended by MPs, Romanians will head back to the polls in a referendum to decide whether President Basescu will be impeached. This previously happened in 2007, when the current president was suspended by 322 MPs out of 430 present, for having breached the constitution. A referendum was held in May of that year and Basescu was voted back into office by 74.4 percent of the voters (around 6 million Romanians). The CCR’s advisory opinion in 2007 was that there was no reason to suspend the president, as he hadn’t violated the constitution.

This time, the president is accused of having encroached on the duties of the PM and of informally leading the PDL party which gave him the presidency in 2004. The USL also accused him of meddling in the judiciary after Basescu suggested ways to improve the efficiency of the legal process. The CCR ruled last week that the president had not breached the constitution.

At the time of the last impeachment attempt, Romania boasted 6 percent economic growth and the president was popular. At present, the economy is estimated to grow by just 1 percent and Romanians are recovering after two years of austerity. The USL won the local elections in June with around 50 percent, while the PDL bore the brunt of the crisis and got around 15 percent.

President Basescu said that he refused to lie to the people and presented the facts regarding the country’s finances and limitations, and this honesty may play a significant role in the referendum results.

ovidiu.posirca@business-review.ro

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