Romania President Basescu says parliamentary call for his suspension involves governing alliance attempt to take over control of Justice, state institutions. He asks for referendum on single-chamber Parliament

Romania President Traian Basescu held a speech in Parliament today following the reading of a governing alliance USL’s request for his suspension. He said he would welcome a parliamentary procedure to suspend him, but questioned the constitutional validity of the current one and said it had four reasons: the USL will to take control over Justice, the USL will to take control of all state institutions, a will to not apply the results of a previous referendum when people opted for a single-Chamber, 300-member parliament and a „circumstantial” will to cover prime minister Victor Ponta’s „European” reputation as a „copy-paste prime minister”.

Basescu said he would also attend a session tomorrow, when a debate and a vote are due to take place on the proposal to suspend the president.

Today, he explained how he saw the reasons behind the suspension to move him:

• First – PSD and PNL (the parties forming the USL governing alliance) interest in taking control over Justice
• Second – the subordination of all state institutions by the party through a serious breach of the Constitution and the laws of the country
• Third – avoiding to apply the results of a referendum in which the large majority of the people opted for a single-chamber, 300-member Parliament
• Fourth – the prime minister you proposed is already reputed in Europe and across the Ocean as a „copy-paste prime minister”

He said „copy-paste prime minister” repeatedly and also recalled a piece of news on Wednesday, by which the University of Catania dismissed that PM Victor Ponta had a master’s degree there 12 years ago, as Ponta had mentioned in a CV which was later edited to remove tha Catania mention. Ponta said yesterday that he attended „courses” in Catania.

By the end of his speech, Basescu asked whether MPs were willing to combine the necessary referendum for his suspension with another referendum to validate a Constitution which would adopt a single-chamber, 300-member Parliament.