by Craig Turp
September 4, 2009
Bucharest
A weekly digest of news and sport from Bucharest and around Romania
Former President attacks Basescu; Presidential election set for November 22
Former Romanian President Emil Constantinescu this week labelled called current president Traian Basescu a “lying, long-term Securitate informer” in an open letter (published on Constantinescu’s own website) in which he endorsed the candidacy of the Liberal Party’s Crin Antonescu. Constantinescu claimed that Basescu was man of “limited eductaion” who had repeatedly shown his incompetence in a long political career in which he had achieved little except “destroiying the [Romanian commercial] fleet and delaying the construction of motorways.”
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by Craig Turp
August 28, 2009
Bucharest
A weekly digest of news and sport from Bucharest and around Romania
Arms scandal dents President’s popularity
Romanian President Traian Basescu suffered perhaps his worst week in almost five years in office as a scandal involving his brother, Mircea, threatened to de-road his reelection campaign. It was claimed in the press that the president’s brother is a major shareholder in a company that allegedly sold arms to a number of questionable regimes and groups, as well as winning lucrative contracts with Romania’s own military. The scandal was amplified on Thursday when it was revealed that Romania is the only European Union country not to have signed a Union-wide convention on arms sales.
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