There were times when the country’s gymnasts would routinely hit headlines during the Olympics. May be they will at London as well. But right now, it is Romania’s ruling coalition, the Social Liberal Union (USL), which is hogging the limelight for what is being viewed as power-grabbing calisthenics. The goings-on are proving an embarrassment to the European Union of which Romania is a member. Prime Minister Victor Ponta has used his parliamentary majority to suspend President Traian Bãsescu, alleging that he has failed to live up to the position of neutrality expected of an incumbent of the high office. Mr. Ponta, who is himself facing accusations of having plagiarised portions of his PhD thesis, rewrote the country’s electoral law on impeachment to remove the requirement of at least a 50 per cent turnout. When the constitutional court voided this change, some within the USL sought to replace the judges. Thanks to pressure from the EU, better sense prevailed. As a result, Mr. Bãsescu, who is expected to lose the impeachment vote, may still survive if the turnout at this Sunday’s referendum is low.
If popular discontent over austerity measures is the proximate cause for the tension between the leftist USL government and the rightist President Bãsescu, what has brought the crisis to breaking point is the semi-presidential constitutional system in which executive authority vests with both head of government and head of state. Now that the political turmoil has reached a high pitch, the national currency, the leu, has taken a knock and there are doubts about the promised billion dollar credit line from the EU. A relatively late entrant to the bloc of 27 countries, Romania is already under close monitoring from EU authorities over the tackling of organised crime and child trafficking. Recent developments have now raised more basic concerns about Bucharest’s respect for democratic values, the rule of law and an independent judiciary. The country’s EU scrutiny has been extended further and put paid to any hopes of admission to the Schengen visa-free travel zone. Under pressure from the European Commission, Mr. Ponta has promised to govern in a manner befitting a liberal democracy. But the EU would do well to not settle for mere verbal assurances. The recent developments in Romania are similar in spirit to the authoritarian clamp down on media freedom by Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last year. The consolidation and stability of parliamentary institutions in countries of Eastern Europe is of paramount importance for the bloc as a whole and its future expansion into the Balkans.
