Suspended president Traian Băsescu during a meeting at Bucharest, July 26 2012.

For and against the “dictator Băsescu”

On 29 July, Romania holds a referendum to confirm or reject the impeachment of the country’s president approved by parliament early this month. The run-up to the vote has been marked by particularly vicious campaigns mounted by both sides and scathing articles in the press: these two opposing editorials from Jurnalul Naţional and Adevărul are a case in point.

Published on 27 July 2012 at 15:22
Suspended president Traian Băsescu during a meeting at Bucharest, July 26 2012.

Behold the deadly duo of Ceauşescu-Băsescu. A bridge over the decades with the face of the communist dictator at one end and a neo-communist autocrat at the other. Both of them equally nasty, and equally unrelenting in their disdain for their people and even their closest associates. And both of them the bizarre recipients of occasional favours from Western Europe.

When they won the general election in 1946, the communists mounted a relatively successful operation to intimidate voters and prevent them from going to the polls. Băsescu and his party (the Democratic Liberal PDL) are now resorting to exactly the same tactic.

There is no more anti-democratic gesture than calling on your own supporters to stay away from the polls. Today Băsescu and his henchmen should be condemned not only for their decision not to participate in the vote, but also for their attempt to prevent other voters from expressing themselves [because the referendum will only be valid if more than half of the country’s 18 million voters go to the polls]. For this profoundly anti-democratic action Băsescu should have already been sanctioned by our Euro-Atlantic partners.

But that is not to say that the similarities with Ceauşescu stop there. Just like his political forebear, Băsescu has sought to identify the person of the “conducător” with the state itself. Ceauşescu liked to present himself as the avatar of the Carpathians and the Danube [and was called “Genius of the Carpathians” and “The Danube of Thought”], and Băsescu would have us believe that he is the incarnation of the mines of Roşia Montana, which is a testament to the lengths to which overt and covert dictators are willing to go in their craven quest for power.

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Even shared the Queen of England’s carriage

And when their thirst for power is not satisfied, they will take full advantage of state institutions that support them to obtain it. Following in the footsteps of Ceauşescu who reinforced his rule with Securitate, Băsescu has abused the secret service to destroy political adversaries and terrify his own supporters — a method of operation that, as always, has been made possible by submissive prosecutors and a legal system on its knees.

Just like Ceauşescu, Băsescu is characterised by his contempt for parliamentary government. [In the time of Ceauşescu] the Great National Assembly was a caricature of a parliament, and Băsescu has attempted to make the modern parliament its natural successor. The same applies to the press. While Ceauşescu relied on censorship, Băsescu added the media to his list of major threats to national security, and at the same time sought to compromise certain journalists — on occasion offering them bribes that were sourced from public funds.

Just like Ceauşescu, Băsescu has presided over corruption: the only difference being that under the latter, corruption has become institutionalised. And because major perpetrators of corruption are the most loyal supporters of his regime, Băsescu sought to subordinate a public ministry to protect his corrupt supporters, while waging a merciless war on his political opponents [an allusion to the conviction of former prime minister Adrian Năstase].

Finally, in exchange for favours that were fully funded by the Romanian population, both Ceauşescu and Băsescu benefited from protection both from Washington and major European governments, to the point where the first of these two dictators even shared the Queen of England’s carriage [in 1978]…

Contrepoint

A risk of institutional drift

In theory, the upcoming vote is to be for or against President Traian Băsescu. In practice, unfortunately, it’s not so simple. The 29 July referendum is a far more complicated problem. The Social-Liberal Union (USL) took office on May 7 with a fixed idea: depose President Băsescu.

And it did it through political games, and not according to the Constitution: there is, in practice, no serious violation of the Constitution that can be attributed to the president [such is the reason for his dismissal by parliament]. The Constitutional Court confirmed the same in its own ruling later. In addition, the USL moved quickly to change the laws and institutions of state to build a sort of party-state, under its total control.

And then, what can the citizens still vote on? Why indeed should they go to the polls? Firstly, to restore legality and the rule of law. The USL has taken Romania several years back when it comes to how democracy works. Despite Victor Ponta’s loud cries that Western Europe is “being manipulated by Băsescu”, the concern of the EU and the international press could not be more justified.

But after so much venom spread in public, after all the shameless propaganda on television channels in the service of the new government, after having talked for years about “Băsescu the dictator”, there are no longer enough citizens committed to defending the rule of law and aware that, in reality, that is what truly is at stake in this vote.

A large majority of people have just grasped that the culprit is Băsescu – the one who slashed wages, who brought in the austerity measures [in exchange for the IMF loan of around 13 billion euros in 2009], etc. The fact that, in his time, justice has become increasingly functional and independent is a mere abstraction for most.

If the president does not return to Cotroceni [the presidential palace], instability will only grow, the crisis deepen, the drift of the state institutions continue – and all under a government led by a proven plagiarist [Prime Minister Victor Ponta, attorney and doctor of law, accused of having plagiarised his thesis] who no longer has the slightest credibility in the EU.

The best scenario would be the return of Traian Băsescu to Cotroceni through a popular vote. But this assumption can be dismissed entirely, because the Democratic Liberal Party has asked its voters to stay at home.

And so the majority USL, which for two months has been heaping on the abuse and has completely compromised the image of Romania, is inviting citizens to remove the “dictator”, and the president, elected by those same citizens, is asking them to stay home to help him return to Cotroceni by invalidating the referendum. Citizens will do what they think is proper.

After July 29, in any case, they will still find the same old problems waiting for them. More than half a year lost in useless political bickering, and a country that is once again the black sheep of Europe.

Mircea Vasilescu (Adevărul, Bucharest)

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