New twist in Bucharest scandal: Conservative leader charges President

The head of the Romanian Conservative Party-PC Dan Voiculescu sparked a new political scandal on Thursday with charges that President Traian Basescu has intervened in favour of interest groups.

This is a new twist in a scandal that’s been rocking Romanian politics for a week and that peaked with mutual accusations of abuse between the head and state and prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

“I publicly accuse (President Basescu) of traffic of influence. We have a document, a resolution signed by Traian Basescu, in which he asks former (Economy) minister Codrut Seres to intervene in favour of some interest groups”, Voiculescu said in a press conference today.

Voiculescu leads the small Conservative Party which after, shady electoral deals in 2004, took part in the governing coalition until last year when it withdrew over political conflicts with the head of state. Codrut Seres is a member of the PC.

Voiculescu said the groups of interests Seres was allegedly urged to contact were dealing with aluminum producer Alro Slatina, which was acquired by Marco company.

Presidency spokeswoman Adriana Saftoiu dismissed the charges and said that the situation was much simpler: Marco sent a notification suggesting industry-related “solution” to the President and what Basescu did was to forward the document to minister Seres to analyze the document. Saftoiu said it was nothing but a usual procedure.