Traian Băsescu

Traian Băsescu

Traian Băsescu
Office:	President of Romania
Term of Office:	December 21, 2004 – present
Predecessor:	Ion Iliescu
Successor:	incumbent
Date of Birth:	Sunday, November 4, 1951
Place of Birth:	Basarabi, Constanţa
Marriage:	Maria Băsescu
Profession:	Sailor Career officer in Romanian Navy
Political Party:	Democrat

Traian Băsescu (born November 4 1951) is a Romanian politician. He is the current President of Romania, since December 20 2004. He became President after winning the 2004 presidential election. He was the Mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, when he resigned to become president.

Family background

Traian Băsescu was born in Basarabi, a village, later a small town near Constanţa, the biggest port in Romania. His father's family originated from Băseşti, a village in Maramureş. One of his former teachers in high-school remembered him claiming to be a member of the same family as Gheorghe Pop de Băseşti (1835–1919), a Romanian politician who fought for the unification of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania and was the president of the Alba-Iulia assembly of 1918, where that union was declared.

Career

Commercial ship captain

Băsescu graduated the Navy Institute of Constanţa in 1976 and became a Merchant Marine Officer at Navrom, the Romanian state-owned shipping company. Between 1981 and 1987 he was the captain of Romania's flagship oil tanker, Biruinţa, the largest ship of the Romanian fleet. Then, until 1989, he headed the Navrom Agency in Antwerp.

Political Career

In order to promote in his navy career, Băsescu became before 1989 a member of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR). After the downfall of Communism, he entered politics as a member of the hegemonic party National Salvation Front (FSN). In 1992, after FSN split in two factions—the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PDSR, later PSD), led by Ion Iliescu, and Democratic Party) (PD), led by Petre Roman—Băsescu joined the PD faction. He was elected in the Romanian Parliament in 1992, as PD Representative (Romanian: "deputat"), and in 1996 was the first Romanian parliamentarian to renounce at his parliamentary immunity, in order to clarify corruption allegations. Between 1996 and 2000 he served again in the House of Deputies. He was elected president of PD in 2001, defeating Petre Roman, the so-called "founding father" of the party.

In 2003, PD and PNL (the National Liberal Party formed the Justice and Truth Alliance (Alianţa DA), in order to fight against the political hegemony of PSD, led by Adrian Năstase, the prime minister of Romania. As Presidents of PD and PNL, Traian Băsescu and Theodor Stolojan served also as co-Presidents of ADA.

Băsescu served several times as Minister of Transportations from 1991 to 1992 in Petre Roman's Cabinet and in Theodor Stolojan's technocratic Cabinet, and then again from November 1996 to June 2000 in the governments of Victor Ciorbea, Radu Vasile, and Mugur Isărescu. During his first term as Minister of Transportation, a large part of the merchant fleet of Romania was sold in circumstances that have raised suspicions, which earned him a criminal investigation: as of 2005, the investigation is suspended until he fulfils his presidential mandate.

Mayor of Bucharest

In 2000 he was elected to the office of mayor of Bucharest, winning the run-off against the PDSR's candidate, Sorin Oprescu, by a very slim margin (50.69% to 49.31%), despite trailing 24% behind him in the first round. He obtained a second term in office in the 2004 Bucharest elections, winning 54.9% of the votes in the first round; the runner-up Mircea Geoană (at that time the Foreign Minister of Romania, later to be elected President of PSD), of the PSD (the successor party to the PDSR) received only 29.7%. His activity as Bucharest's mayor is considered to be the best since the earthquake in 1977. He is credited for the reduction (albeit using very drastic measures such as large scale euthanasia) in numbers of stray dogs (euphemistically known as câini comunitari, "community" dogs) roaming freely among the streets of the city from approximately 200,000–300,000 in 2000 to 25,000 in 2004, and thus in the number of dog bite injuries from 1500/day to under 200/day; (source : The Administration for Animal Control (ASA) of the Mayor's Office of Bucharest, 2003) for improvements to the water and lighting systems (which were in a very bad state) (source: Bucharest's Mayor's Office [1]; and for the modernisation of public transportation in the city. He was criticized for not repairing the road system in the city, but that is claimed to be due to governmental (he was a member of the opposition) chicanery both at the upper and lower levels.

Traian Băsescu on election night

Traian Băsescu with George W. Bush

President of Romania

Following Theodor Stolojan's surprise retreat from the 2004 presidential elections, Băsescu entered the presidential race on behalf of the (Justice and Truth alliance (Alianţa DA) forged by the National Liberal Party and his Democratic Party. His principal rival for the office was Adrian Năstase, like Băsescu a former Communist Party member, who was the incumbent prime minister and PSD party president. Although Năstase won the first round by 7%, Băsescu achieved a surprise comeback and won the December 12 run-off by a 2.46% margin, receiving 51.23% percent of the vote.

Currently he is very popular, due to his open style, his hands on approach, and his quick decision making. He is the perceived liberator of the kidnapped Romanian journalists in Irak (70% confidence ratio), and the stable element in a rather unstable coalition. In his electoral campaign, Băsescu promised to be a "player President" (in Romanian, "preşedinte jucător"). After he became president, he became very involved in the political life, often being accused by the opposition to be partisan. However, his first disappointment was that Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu decided not to resign in order to provoke anticipated elections, as Băsescu expected.

Controversies

As a navy officer and captain, Băsescu was accused of involvement with the Communist regime's infamous Securitate, but no evidence for this was produced. In fact he was not accused of taking part in political police actions but rather in commercial espionage. In the live TV debate with Năstase before the 2004 run-off presidential election, Băsescu caught his opponent off-guard with the following confession: "You know what Romania's greatest curse is right now? It's that Romanians have to choose between two former Communist Party members."

During his tenure as Minister of Transportation, the Romanian commercial fleet was privatised at a price that was generally viewed as disadvantageous to the Romanian state. This is widely known in Romania as The Fleet Affair (Dosarul Flota). Charges were made against him with regards to this affair, but no evidence of his involvement was yet proven. In 1996, while under scrutiny, Băsescu resigned his parliamentary mandate in order to allow judicial procedures against him to be carried on (Romanian MP's were, by default, granted immunity from prosecution). Due to conflicting possible interpretations of the phrasing of the Constitution, the High Court of Cassation and Justice will have to decide if Băsescu's immunity as a President covers only actions during his term as president or extends to prior activities. The Constitution states that the President has immunity and that a previous article regarding MP's immunity over matters regarding their votes or statements made while holding office. Although the lawsuit against him was closed due to lack of evidence, it was reopened in early 2004, in what many consider to be a political maneuver against him using the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Bureau, an institution his supporters claim has been used mostly for political reprisals against anti-PSD campaigners.

External links

• Basescu.ro: Official candidacy site (only in Romanian)
• Official web site of the President of Romania
• Traian Băsescu's short biography on the Romanian Presidency web site
• Traian Băsescu's Curriculum Vitae (only in Romanian)
• BBC Profile: Traian Băsescu