PARLIAMENT SUSPENDS PRESIDENT BASESCU

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUCHAREST 000453

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - AARON JENSEN
NSC FOR ADAM STERLING

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/18/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR RO
SUBJECT: PARLIAMENT SUSPENDS PRESIDENT BASESCU

REF: A. A) BUCHAREST 385

B. B) BUCHAREST 415

Classified By: Political Counselor Theodore Tanoue for Reasons 1.4 (b)
and (d).


1. (C) Summary: The Romanian Parliament on April 19 voted
322 to 108 (10 abstentions) to suspend President Traian
Basescu for 30 days. The suspension should go into effect
April 20 after the Constitutional Court notes the decision
and it is published in the Official Gazette. Basescu's staff
announced he would wait for the decision to be published
before carrying out his earlier promise to resign if
suspended. If Basescu should resign, this would trigger a
procedure to hold early presidential elections within 90
days. A decision to remain as President under the thirty-day
terms of reference for suspension would mean a national
referendum on whether the President can remain in office.
The anti-Basescu camp appeared to revel in the president's
suspension. End Summary.


2. (C) The vote to suspend President Basescu, cast by
secret ballot, tallied 322 to 108, with 10 abstentions,

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despite the ruling by the Constitutional Court that
suspension of the President was not justified constitutionly.
The president of the Senate, Social Democrat (PSD) Nicolae
Vacaroiu will become interim president.


3. (C) Some commentators and Democratic Party
representatives have raised the prospect of parliament's
following Lithuania's precedent by passing a law in the
interim period barring suspended presidents from competing in
presidential elections. Basescu's "pause" to carry out his
April 13 promise "to resign within five minutes of
suspension", may reveal his uncertainty whether parliament
would actually take the next step to bar him from a
presidential election, and thus change the rules of the game
while he is out of office. Extreme nationalist and Greater
Romania Party (PRM) leader Vadim Tudor has taunted Basescu
for not resigning, saying he lacks character and is "a man of
evil, of the past." Basescu maintained that his suspension
had no constitutional justification, and in fact represented
another step backwards from democratic governance. He said
the Parliament had acted against him because he had
challenged the oligarchic order in post-communist Romania.



4. (C) A simple majority vote from a joint session of
parliament (235 out of 469) was necessary to suspend the
president. The final tally of 322 means that the Social
Democrats (PSD),Conservatives (PC),and the Greater Romania
Party (PRM) would have voted for the suspension, but also so
did most of the Liberal Party and their ethnic Hungarian
ruling partners in the UDMR. It would appear that only the
Democratic Party's (PD) seventy legislators and the Liberal
Democratic Party's (PLD) twenty-seven parliamentarians, along
with eleven independents voted against the suspension. PM
Tariceanu tried to appear above the fray by abstaining from
the vote and allowing Liberal Party members to vote as they
pleased. But his anti-Basescu comments to the media today
made it clear he is squarely behind the suspension effort.


5. (C) The ball is now with the constitutional court, which
is likely but not certain to give its assent to the
suspension decision soon, possibly within hours. Also
uncertain is whether President Basescu will fulfill his
pledge to resign and call for snap presidential elections
within 90 days. But indications are growing that he may in
the end decide to contest a referendum in the shorter 30-day
suspension time frame rather than risk being barred by a
hostile Parliamentary legislative initiative from contesting
a new presidential contest.



6. (C) Comment: Parliament's vote highlights the fact that
the level of political maturity in Romania remains well below
what we would hope to see in a NATO and EU member state. The
Parliament, marching to the tune of the old-style
post-Communist business and political elites, turned down a
path that may have enduring consequences for Romanian
democracy. Yet the people have yet to speak out. If Basescu
has his way, the Parliament may find out that it is not in
control of events after all. End Comment.
TAUBMAN