Romania’s Basescu Risks Losing Ex-President’s Privileges
Former president of Romania Traian Basescu delivers a speech after he was decorated by the President of Moldova Nicolae Timofti with the order of ‘Stefan cel Mare’, during his visit in Chisinau, Moldova, April 2, 2015. Photo: EPA/Doru Dumitru
Former Romanian president and present MEP in the European Parliament Traian Basescu stands to lose all his privileges as an ex-head of state because he collaborated in his youth with the communist secret police, the Securitate, following a vote in parliament’s Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday.
It ruled that the rights granted to former heads of state are to be withdrawn if they worked for or collaborated with the Securitate. Such a person “does not benefit from the provisions of this law, nor does a person who is definitively found to have the quality of a worker for the Securiitate or a collaborator with it”, the text reads.
The Chamber of Deputies voted almost unanimously on the law, with 264 votes in favour, three against and 11 abstentions. After that, the law goes to President Klaus Iohannis and enters into force after its appearance in the Official Gazette.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled on September 20, 2019, that Basescu, who was born 1951, had collaborated with Communist security bodies.
It said he gave information to the Securitate about his classmates’ attitude toward the communist regime of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and signed his notes under the codename “Petrov”.
Basescu has denied the allegations of collaboration. He also said that he never knew that he had been assigned a code name by the secret police.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal took nine months to reach this decision. In June 2020, the case reached the Supreme Court, after Băsescu filed an appeal. A trial there will begin on November 5.
