[jeffkrol]

well different to me..............

"He (Basescu) will probably stay in Cotroceni (presidential palace), will have cars, villas and some profiteers around him who will continue to advise and praise him," Ponta said. "But for the Romanian people he stopped being a leader last night."

Basescu, a conservative whose perceived cronyism and support for economic austerity has made him unpopular, said he would not quit because the vote had shown that more than half of Romanians did not want to remove him. He had called for a boycott of the referendum.

Romania PM demands president resign, row persists | Reuters
older:

Romanian voters will probably impeach suspended President Traian Basescu in a referendum today if turnout, the key condition to validate the vote, reaches a minimum threshold of half of the electorate.

About 37.7 percent of the 18.3 million eligible voters cast ballots by 8 p.m. in Bucharest, according to estimates from the central electoral bureau. Polling stations are open until 11 p.m. About 72 percent of voters want to oust the 60-year-old Basescu, while 28 percent will back him, figures from polling company Operations Research showed.

Premier Victor Ponta’s government, the Balkan nation’s third this year, took power in May riding a Europe-wide backlash against austerity steps. His efforts to ease impeachment rules and diminish the Constitutional Court’s powers have drawn criticism from European Union leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who voiced concern that democracy is backsliding in the former communist country. The tumult has pushed the leu to record lows and boosted borrowing costs.

Romanians Seek to Impeach Basescu Amid EU Criticism - Businessweek

[boriscleto]

Uh oh. When the Balkans sneeze, the rest of Europe gets the flu. I guess it's lucky for us Western Europe has spent the last 25 years disarming as much as possible.

Germany is down to what? Less than 75,000 soldiers?

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

well different to me..............



Romania PM demands president resign, row persists | Reuters
older:

Romanians Seek to Impeach Basescu Amid EU Criticism - Businessweek

President Basescu has his faults, but under his presidency we finally got a jail term for a former official - former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. Here's Nastase's reaction as covered by BBC - note who visited him at the hospital: his ally, the current Prime Minister - Vasile Ponta. There are other members of the Parliament with cases open against them so the attempt to oust the President is unsurprising.

It is interesting to read the EU report:

Judicial independence remains an important issue for Romania. Since accession, the judiciary
has been able to affirm its independence gradually, in particular through the successful
investigation, prosecution and trial of an increasing number of high-level corruption cases.
This has lead to significant achievements at the level of prosecution and, since 2010, also at
the level of courts as described under chapter II.2 in this report. A final conviction in an
emblematic high-level corruption cases in June and the actions of the High Court of Cassation
and Justice, the Superior Council of the Magistracy and of the Constitutional Court in
resisting political challenges to judicial independence and in affirming professional integrity
in the aftermath of this verdict has marked a step change in this sense.

However, the Commission is concerned by the recent pressure exercised by members of the
Romanian Government and senior politicians on the Constitutional Court: these are
unacceptable interventions against an independent judicial institution. The Government and
all political levels must respect the separation of powers. They must also strictly respect the
independence of the judiciary.

In particular, the Commission is concerned by the recent limitation of competences of the
Constitutional Court in regard to parliamentary decisions. The Romanian authorities must
urgently restore these competences in accordance with the Romanian Constitution. The
Commission has been informed by letter of 16 July from the Prime Minister of Romania that
this requirement will be met.

http://ec.europa.eu/cvm/docs/com_2012_410_en.pdf

Vasile Ponta is an interesting character - there's been a lot of talk about his doctoral thesis being plagiarized - Wikipedia has even more details than I knew:

Finally, an article published in Nature reported that an anonymous source had charged Ponta with plagiarizing over half his doctoral thesis,[26][27] claims that were later reiterated by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.[28] Ponta admitted that the referencing system used by his thesis did not provide clear attribution of its sources, but rejected the allegations of plagiarism.[29][28] Dumitru Diaconu, a law professor and author supposedly plagiarised by Ponta's thesis, and who also authored a foreword for the published edition of the thesis, declared he was not aware of plagiarism and did not intend to pursue the accusations.[30] A session of a committee charged with validating academic titles analyzed the thesis and decided with a unanimous vote of members present that Ponta had committed copy and paste plagiarism, subsequently requesting the withdrawal of Ponta's doctoral title. In response, the interim Education Minister contested the committee's jurisdiction and dismissed the findings, citing the lack of a quorum. The minister had already signed an order reorganizing the committee the previous day, but, due to technical reasons, the order came into effect during the very session analyzing the thesis.[31] Another committee, subordinated to the Education Ministry, later found that Ponta did not commit plagiarism.[32] A third committee, convoked by the University of Bucharest and consisting of ten members, each from a different department, unanimously found that Ponta had indeed deliberately plagiarized at least a third of his thesis. Ponta replied that the committee was an "ad-hoc" one designed especially for him, and that the decision was a "political" one.[33][34][35][36] Until the controversy began and his official curriculum vitae was modified, he claimed in the document to have received a master's degree in International Criminal Law from the University of Catania in 2000. That institution's rector replied to an enquiry by stating an internal verification had revealed Ponta was never at the University of Catania. In turn, Ponta stated that he took a course there and received a diploma.[37]

[Parallax]

Basescu, a conservative whose perceived cronyism and support for economic austerity has made him unpopular, said he would not quit

That stance didn't work out so well for a former Romanian leader and his wife.

Merry Christmas, Nicolae and Elena.

[Kunzite]

Parallax, if you think president Basescu is a dictator like the Ceausescu family then you've read too much USL propaganda Don't be mistaken, the worst communists are on the USL side (including ex-president Ion Iliescu, who used to call miners to violently crush anti-governmental manifestations).

Also, I do not think Adrian Nastase being arrested is completely unrelated. IMO many politicians from both sides should go to jail...

[Parallax]

Parallax, if you think president Basescu is a dictator like the Ceausescu family then you've read too much USL propaganda

No, I wasn't making a comparison at all. I was merely noting that for at least one Romanian leader an "I'm not going anywhere" stance has not worked out as planned; and deservedly so in that case.

[Kunzite]

OK... but then, the Ceausescu family actually tried to run