Iliescu’s Last Words on the Job: "I Am Human, Hence I Err"

In his last day in office, President Ion Iliescu recognized in a press conference that errors mired his last days on the job, and attributed those to his human nature, which is bound to make mistakes.

"I am human, hence I err," said Iliescu. "The head of state founds himself under constant pressure from various quarters, which is conducive to making errors or decisions that have perverse or adverse outcome, even when best interests are at heart, which unfortunately was the case in these past days too," said Iliescu.

Without explicitly mentioning the pardoning of [former miners’ leader] Miron Cozma [which subsequently caused a public uproar], Iliescu stated once again, in front of the journalists, that he takes full responsibility for such errors and does not relegate them to people lower down. He also wished the up-coming President [Traian Basescu] to "be more successful in avoiding similar situations."

Iliescu also promised to give Basescu all his support. "I will support all the President’s initiatives that serve Romanian causes," said Iliescu, referring to strengthening the institutions and fighting corruption "and as long as they are not a conduit for political vendettas." He also advised the President-elect to arrive to a stable parliamentary majority, going beyond "political infighting and pride."

Iliescu recognized that the judiciary was weakened and that this allowed corruption to develop. He said that the greatest mistake would be to turn the anticorruption fight into a political one. "There is no such thing as good corrupt people, when they belong to our ranks, and bad corrupt people, when they belong to our political adversaries’ ranks," said Iliescu. As for the media status, Iliescu commented that as media outlets will come into more financial resources, their independence will grow "and they will preserve their freedom to criticize what is to be criticized," said Iliescu.

Some of Iliescu’s advisers will continue to serve under President Basescu’s leadership.

One of them is Dumitru Honciu, head of the protocol department, who worked at Cotroceni Palace in this capacity during all of Iliescu’s mandates.

Also keeping his job will be Dan Vuerich, head of the organization department. All top presidential advisers, however, will be replaced. The following will leave the Presidency: Rodica Stanoiu (national security), Corina Cretu (public relations), Octavian Stireanu (politics), and Simona Miculescu. The last two will go to take his seat in parliament, and her job in the ministry of foreign affairs, respectively. The new presidential advisers will be Vasile Blaga (national security), Adriana Saftoiu (public relations), Claudiu Saftoiu (politics), Andrei Plesu (foreign affairs), Theodor Stolojan (economics), and Renate Weber (judicial affairs). Iliescu rejected the attempts of the journalists to ask him questions and left the room immediately after making his last statement on the top job.