CONTENTIOUS LIBERAL LEADER NOMINATED FOR JUSTICE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 001379

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/19/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL RO
SUBJECT: CONTENTIOUS LIBERAL LEADER NOMINATED FOR JUSTICE
MINISTER


Classified By: CDA Mark A. Taplin; Reasons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (SBU) Summary. The governing National Liberal Party (PNL)
decided on December 17 to nominate Norica Nicolai, Deputy
Speaker of the Senate and one of the PNL vice-presidents, for
the Justice Minister position vacated since the December 10
resignation of Tudor Chiuariu. President Traian Basescu must
now decide whether to accept Nicolai's appointment and swear
her in, which, though likely, is not a foregone conclusion
since she has been a vocal critic of his presidency. End
Summary.


2. (SBU) Nicolai has a legal background and experience as a
deputy minister for Labor between 1996 and 2000, and has been
a member of Parliament since 2000. She is well-known for her
outspokenness and opposition to Traian Basescu. On the other
hand, Nicolai is also a member of a faction inside PNL which
does not endorse all of PM Tariceanu's decisions. Prior to
her nomination, Nicolai along with other PNL vice-presidents
had called for reshuffling the government and replacing
controversial ministers, including Chiuariu. In one of her
first statements after the nomination, Nicolai pledged to
continue the fight against corruption and to stop the sharp
decline in public trust in the Romanian justice system that
already was suffering because of high perceived corruption
and inefficiency.


3. (SBU) Norica Nicolai is not a newcomer to the Cabinet. She
was a Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection between
1997 and 2000. She joined the PNL in 2000, when she was first
elected to the Romanian Parliament. She was reelected in
2004, and currently represents the Cluj constituency in the
Senate. Since April 2007, Norica Nicolai is one of four
deputy speakers of the Senate. She was the vice-president of
the Senate's Defense Committee between March 2005 and June

2007. She is also a member of the Senate's legal committee
and of the Romanian Parliament's Delegation to the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly since December 2004. At the PNL's
party convention in January 2007, she was elected
vice-president for Equal Opportunity and Relationships with
Civil Society. She is also the leader of the PNL Women
Organization since 2003. Nicolai has a degree in law from the
University of Bucharest (1983) and then worked as a
county-level prosecutor during the communist regime. Since
1991, she has been a practicing lawyer and a university
professor. She is 50, married, and has a daughter.


3. (SBU) Norica Nicolai is the third woman in charge of the
justice portfolio in a decade. She succeeds ex-PSD senator
Rodica Stanoiu (2000-2003) who was criticized for blocking
judicial reforms and corruption investigations during former
PM Nastase's tenure, and Monica Macovei (2004-2007) who in
contrast enjoyed a very favorable reputation abroad -
especially within the EU. Macovei's efforts to reform the
justice system were viewed as a significant contribution to
Romania's successful bid to join the EU. Macovei, however,
had a contentious relationship with Parliament and the
Tariceanu government; even allies like President Basescu and
his PD party sometimes felt uncomfortable with her
uncompromising stance on official corruption. Macovei's
successor, Tudor Chiuariu, resigned earlier this month after
a mere seven months in office in which he repeatedly tried to
reverse some of Macovei's reforms and alienated Basescu and
the European Commission. One of Chiuariu's least inspired
plans was to dismiss the National Anti-Corruption
Department's (DNA) leadership.


4. (C) Comment: Coming in under the current circumstances,
Nicolai will have a difficult mission. For one thing, her
nomination to the post was opposed initially by the Prime
Minister, with whom she reportedly has a rocky relationship.
Nicolai has a well-earned reputation for being prickly and
outspoken. Upon accepting the nomination, she pledged to
redress the public image of the Romanian justice system (no
easy task),and announced that one of her priorities would be
to draft a national strategy on preventing corruption. Since
an anti-corruption strategic plan is already in place thanks
to Macovei, Nicolai's statement may foreshadow her continuing
to advance an agenda aimed at protecting oligarchs like
billionaire Dinu Patriciu, the Liberal Party eminence grise
for whom she has worked in the past. When Nicolai promised
this week that she would resist political pressure, she may
have had in mind President Basescu rather than fellow
Liberals or others in the unreconstructed Bucharest political
and business elites. At a minimum, the vociferous Nicolai
will prove a more formidable opponent for critics than was
the ill-starred Chiuariu, whose inexperience showed
immediately and whom spent most of his tenure stumbling from
one public affairs disaster to another. End comment.

BUCHAREST 00001379 002 OF 002


TAPLIN