The Week in Review 23-30 November

A look at the main events of the week in Romania.

România Internațional, 30.11.2014, 13:51

The Social Democratic Party is in turmoil after losing the presidential elections

Tense, long but necessary is how prime minister Victor Ponta described the meeting of the Social Democrats’ National Executive Committee, the first to bring together the party’s leaders after Victor Ponta lost the presidential elections. One of the things agreed in the meeting was that the Social Democratic Party must stay in power. Following the departure of the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians from the ruling coalition, the Dan Diaconescu Party of the People said it was willing to take its place in the government alongside the National Union for the Progress of Romania, the Conservative Party and the Reformist Liberal Party. Another important decision taken by the Social Democratic Party was to expel three of its prominent members from its ranks. Victor Ponta explains:

“The 80 colleagues who voted in favour of exclusion felt it was time to part ways, so that each could follow our own path. We also spoke about the future and the fact that a team must show cohesion in order to be able to overcome difficult moments.”

Fresh from the meeting, Marian Vangheline, one of the people excluded from the party, a former vice-president of the party, was very open about his feelings:

“Never in my life have I seen such an execution. Not even in the Communist Party. They are afraid of a free Congress and wanted us out of the way.”

A new Congress of the Social Democratic Party will be held in March. By then, the Social Democrats plan to come up with a new political project and a new team to rid itself of such labels as “communist” and “corrupt”.

The National Anticorruption Directorate makes public its activity report

Romania’s president elect Klaus Iohannis says corruption is Romania’s biggest internal problem of national security and one that leads to social and economic segregation and a reversal of values. Therefore, he says, the country’s political class is in dire need of moral cleansing. According to the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi, people’s confidence in the institution she runs has grown. This is demonstrated, she says, by the large number of complaints filed by citizens and public institutions, with the exception of intelligence services, which informed 83% of all cases opened in the first ten months of the year. Laura Codruta Kovesi:

“So far, in 2014 we have received over 1,600 complaints and reports from private individuals and legal entities, compared to 1,032 in 2010. In my opinion, people will only ask the help of an institution if they have confidence in it and know they have a reasonable chance to receive a correct solution to their problem.”

No less than 1,007 persons have received corruption sentences this year alone.

Investigators look at suspicious deal worth tens of millions of euros

The National Land Return Authority, which is responsible for the return of land nationalised by the communist regime, is under scrutiny by anticorruption prosecutors. The body’s former head, Crinuta Dumitrean, has been arrested for a temporary period of 30 days, while its former vice-president Oana Vasilescu is under investigation as part of a case that also involves the chief of the organised crime and anti-terrorism body, Alina Bica, who is already under arrest.

The three are accused of abuse of office while serving in a committee handling the return of land confiscated during the communist regime. In 2011, they are suspected of approving the payment, to a businessman, of compensations amounting to three times the actual value of the land. This cost the state no less than 60 million euros. The Liberal Democrat MP Catalin Teodorescu and the ethnic Hungarian MP Marko Attila Gabor were also part of the committee, so prosecutors have requested the Chamber of Deputies to approve their arrest. It appears that businessman Dorin Cocos was also involved. The former husband of presidential candidate and head of the People’s Movement Party Elena Udrea, Cocos is believed to have requested 10 million euros in exchange for securing approval of the overvalued compensation.

High-profile names are involved in the Microsoft corruption scandal

A senator of the National Union for the Progress of Romania and former government secretary general, Serban Mihailescu was indicted by the National Anticorruption Directorate for his involvement in the Microsoft case regarding the purchase of IT licences for Romanian schools. Mihailescu is accused of asking for money in exchange for using his influence to benefit Fujitsu Siemens Computers, a Microsoft licensee in Romania. Suspected of abuse of office, the former Social Democrat education minister Ecaterina Andronescu was herself indicted as part of this case, along with 9 other former ministers from different governments, both right and left of centre.

Other persons under investigation are the businessmen Nicolae Dumitru and Dorin Cocos, as well as the former communications minister Gabriel Sandu and the mayor of Piatra Neamt, Gheorghe Stefan, all of whom are in temporary arrest, where they may spend another 30 days if the Supreme Court approves the extension of their temporary arrest warrants.

The Republic of Moldova holds parliamentary elections

The result of Sunday’s parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova will decided which way the country will be heading — West or back, to Russia. According to opinion polls, the three pro-European parties currently in Parliament may together obtain 40% of the votes, while the Party of the Communists has 20% of voting intentions. In Bucharest, where the entire political class supports Moldova’s European future, the result of Sunday’s vote is awaited with anticipation.