A WOLF IN WOLF'S CLOTHING: ROMANIAN EXTREMIST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000716

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - WILLIAM SILKWORTH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/21/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL SOCI PHUM RO
SUBJECT: A WOLF IN WOLF'S CLOTHING: ROMANIAN EXTREMIST
PARTY TRIES TO CHANGE ITS IMAGE

Classified By: DEPUTY POLITICAL SECTION CHIEF CHRISTOPHER PALMER FOR RE
ASONS 1.4 B AND D


1. (SBU) Summary: The extreme nationalist Greater Romania
Party (PRM) changed its name to the Greater Romania Popular
Party (PPRM) March 12, a move aimed at burnishing its
tarnished image and facilitating its affiliation with the
center-right European Popular Party (EPP). Corneliu Vadim
Tudor, outspoken xenophobe, political chameleon and PRM,s
founder and leader, formally renounced de jure leadership of
the &new8 party but will serve as PPRM,s &Honorary
President,8 publicly boasting that he will retain control of
the party. While President Basescu's National Liberal
Party-Democratic Party coalition remains skeptical of PRM's
"transformation," leaders of the former ruling center-left
Social Democratic Party (PSD) express willingness to work
with a &democratic8 PRM. End Summary.

&Strategic Moves8 To Change the Party,s Image
--------------

2. (SBU) The National Council of the Greater Romania Party
(PRM) voted unanimously March 12 at the urging of party
founder and president Corneliu Vadim Tudor to change the
party,s name to the Greater Romania Popular Party (PPRM).
Tudor also formally renounced his executive responsibilities
and the Council elected him &honorary president.8 The
PPRM,s new president is the PRM,s former first
vice-president Corneliu Ciontu, a PRM deputy since 1996 and
currently a Chamber of Deputies Vice President. Ciontu, aged
63 and a sociologist by training, holds a relatively low
profile and is widely viewed as personally loyal to Tudor.
Like his mentor Tudor * a &court poet8 to dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu and his wife Elena - Ciontu was loyal to the
communist regime, serving as a Romanian Communist Party
activist from 1973 to 1989.


3. (SBU) During a press conference following the PRM,s
National Council, Tudor acknowledged that the PRM had made a
&strategic move8 aimed at improving the party,s image and
breaking the &informational blockade8 imposed on PRM by
mainstream European parties. Alleging that PRM was the main
victim of &electoral fraud8 in the 2004 parliamentary and
presidential elections, Tudor claimed that his party needs
&European protection8, referring to the PRM,s ongoing
efforts to join the center-right EPP.


4. (SBU) Tudor also voiced &great disappointment8 with the
party he founded, asserting that the PRM is fraught with
endless internal fights. Tudor declared that he decided to
step down because he was tired of trying unsuccessfully to
&calm down egos8 and no longer wanted to deal with
&fools8 from PRM local organizations. He claimed that he
plans to dedicate more time to setting up a new TV station
and to completing his doctoral dissertation on &The Presence
of Angels in the Bible.8

PRM's Declining Public Support
--------------

5. (SBU) The announced changes coincide with the party,s
declining popularity. An INSOMAR poll released March 13
credits the PRM with only 5 percent of popular support and
political analysts agree that Tudor,s and the party,s
relatively weak showing in the 2004 parliamentary elections
exacerbated divisions within the party. Discontented PRM
members note that, for the first time ever, the party as a
whole gained a larger percentage of the national popular vote
in parliamentary elections, than its charismatic leader and
three time presidential candidate, Tudor, garnered in the
first round presidential contest (12.99 percent in the
Chamber of Deputies and 13.65 percent in the Senate vs.
Tudor's 12.57 percent). Following the 2004 elections, a
number of local PRM activists called for changes in the
party,s leadership and prominent PRM senator Mihai Lupoi
resigned from the party, accusing Vadim Tudor of extremism
and a dictatorial leadership style.


6. (C) Tudor,s campaign over the past few years to shed his
virulently anti-Semitic image by embracing what he calls
&philosemitism8 has failed to convince Romanians or the
international community at large that he has become, as he
claims, a mainstream conservative in the Christian Democratic
mold. Tudor,s attempts to cultivate a mainstream image for
the party correspond with his unsuccessful attempts to join
the European Popular Party (EPP),a move aimed at giving the
party greater internal and external legitimacy. However, the
EPP has rebuffed the PRM,s overtures and some analysts
assert that the EPP called for Tudor's complete ouster from
the party, given his long record of Holocaust denial, as well
as anti-Hungarian and anti-Roma statements. Some also allege
that the Israeli-owned consulting company, Arad
Communications, urged Tudor to step into the background and
to rename the party. His own attitude toward the erstwhile
PRM President is clearly evident in his contentious award to
Tudor of Romania's highest honor - the Star of Romania - in
the waning weeks of PSD-controlled government.

The More Things Change. . .
--------------

7. (SBU) Tudor,s statement that he will continue to control
the party, coupled with Corneliu Ciontu,s acknowledgment of
Tudor as &uncontested leader of the party8 have convinced
independent observers that Tudor remains at PPRM's helm.
Only the former ruling center-left Social Democrat Party
(PSD),which finds itself in the parliamentary opposition
with Tudor,s party, accepted the PRM,s metamorphosis at
face value: the PSD spokesperson stated in a news conference
that the party is ready to work closely with a &democratic8
PPRM. Ex-PM and PSD president Adrian Nastase said that Vadim
Tudor,s decision to step down was a &proof of wisdom8 and
&an extremely important decision,8 while former president
Ion Iliescu declared that the changes &could lead to
something interesting.8 In an interview with a popular TV
station, Iliescu also indirectly slammed Nastase for
discounting the importance of PRM votes in last fall,s
elections.


8. (SBU) Leaders from the governing parliamentary coalition
dismissed out of hand the PRM,s alleged transformation.
Democratic Party acting President Emil Boc and the leader of
the ethnic Hungarian Party (UDMR),Marko Bela, asserted that
PRM's name change and the withdrawal of Vadim from the front
line are merely &sham8 changes aimed at duping the EPP and
fooling the Romanian public. Although National Liberal Party
(PNL) and Romanian Humanist Party (PUR) representatives
publicly welcomed the PRM,s attempts to transform its image,
they expressed caution over the substance of this change,
given Tudor's continued role within the party. (Note: PNL
and PD leaders have repeatedly insisted publicly and in
private meetings with Embassy officers that they will not
enter into a coalition with Tudor. End Note.) Widely
respected Timisoara mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu, leader of the
tiny center-right Christian-Democrat Popular Party (PPCD),
criticized PRM,s &faade8 change. The UDMR and PPCD
declarations are especially resonant since these parties are
the only two Romanian parties currently affiliated with the
EPP.


9. (C) Comment: Political analysts widely predicted a PRM
attempt at auto-transformation, given the PRM's declining
public support and growing discord within a party where some
members view extremist Tudor as the primary obstacle to the
PRM's integration into mainstream Romanian and European
politics. Indeed, senior PSD officials predicted last fall
that the PRM's attempt at a "makeover" would include the
purely cosmetic change of renaming the party in early 2005,
and possibly, changing Tudor's formal role within the party.
They also hinted that a PSD-PRM alliance would be possible if
PRM sufficiently changed its image. In post,s view, the
&new8 PPRM remains, for all intents and purposes, the
&old8 PRM, albeit with a slightly new name, still under the
de facto control of extremist xenophobe Corneliu Vadim Tudor.
End Comment.


10. (C) Naturally, the maneuverings described here are not
taking place in a vacuum. Despite his extremism, Tudor has
been a constant and sometimes, even eloquent, proponent of
tough anti-corruption measures. His fire on that issue, at
least for the moment has been stolen by practical moves of
the new Center Right Coalition against tax evasion and
thievery in high places. At the same time, other parties are
taking aim at parts of Tudor's parliamentary support. The
PSD, for example, continues to flirt with the notion of
attracting PRM parliamentarians who were allocated seats when
the National Union Bloc (BNS) offered its support to Tudor
during the last electoral campaign. Similarly, Cozmin Gusa,
former PSD General Secretary and later, Basescu confidant,
told us that he thought he could easily hive off a half dozen
"progressive" PRM parliamentarians who could be convinced to
support his newly formed National Initiative Party. (Note:
According to Gusa, the party is intended to be an Orthodox
analogue to the Conservative Catholic parties of western
Europe. End Note) The moral - the intentions and plotting
of Tudor may count for much less than he believes. Genuine
alternatives and ambitious scavengers are likely to take a
toll on his base support and parliamentary seating.


11. (U) Amembassy Bucharest,s reporting telegrams are
available on the Bucharest SIPRNET Website:
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/bucharest.
DELARE