President attempts to defuse political crisis, apparently to no avail

Romanian President Traian Basescu started consultations with parliamentary parties on Tuesday in an effort to defuse the ongoing political crisis that puts him and his Democratic Party-PD allies against the opposition and PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s Liberals (PNL). The talks concluded in late afternoon with little signs of a breakthrough. Basescu is expected to present the results to the media on Wednesday.

Talks started on wrong foot before noon as the prime minister failed to join his Liberal colleagues in meeting the head of state.

Basescu first met representatives of the opposition Social Democrats (PSD) led by party leader Mircea Geoana, who has been accusing the head of state of no longer representing a mediator between political groups but a source of many scandals that have affecting Romania for months.

Geoana accused following the meeting that Basescu failed to deliver a solution to leave the current crisis behind, while the PSD argued for the “removal” of the current governing alliance of Liberals (PNL) and Democrats (PD).

The PSD had said they did not believe these talks with the president would solve the political crisis in Bucharest, sparked by conflicts between the two major members of the governing coalition - PNL and PD, between Basescu and Tariceanu, with the opposition on largely Tariceanu’s side.

While the PNL had announced Tariceanu would join the talks today, the prime minister failed to show up and led PNL vice-president Puiu Hasotti and other several members of the party leadership to meet the president.

Once the PNL round of talks was over, Liberal leader Crin Antonescu dismissed the President as a “viable” partner of political talks or a “political character able to solf crises in Romania. He’d rather generate them, he’s performing quite in this regard”.

And Antonescu said the disputes should find a solution in the Parliament, between political parties, not at the Presidency.

The Democrats have said they believed the only solution out of the current crisis would be early elections. Once talks with the President were over, PD leader Emil Boc told the media that “the global solution to solve the current crisis stands in early elections” as “in democracy, the solution does not come from backstage games, but from turning to voters”.

The Hungarian Democrats believe the crisis would be over either by early polls or by some other means for the government to obtain majority support in the Parliament, party leader Marko Bela said following his meeting with Basescu.

The opposition Greater Romania Party have said they would not discuss with the President and the Conservative Party (PC) had said they would only face Basescu to listen to him, but with little hope of a breakthrough. PC leader Dan Voiculescu told the media after talks today that he asked the President to resign.

“We look forward that the decision of a political man who loves Romania and Romanians be made within a very short while”, Voiculescu said.

HotNews.ro, Mar 20, 2007