Romanian Minister of Culture Cleans the House with a Dirty Broom

The Romanian minister of culture Adrian Iorgulescu started a crusade against the artists, writers and priests who collaborated with the Securitate, the communist times intelligence services.

Quite conveniently he chose to keep quiet about the fact that he was one of those traveling to Rome, during the communist regime, which made sure the privilege of traveling abroad went only to people it could trust.

He also keeps quiet about the conflict of interest he found himself in, as a minister who amended a law that put more money into his personal pockets, as head of the Association for Intellectual Property Rights of the Romanian Union of Composers.

Iorgulescu’s declaration of wealth of 18 September 2006 states that he received last year RON 26,431 sroughly EUR 7,550t as president of this association.

Iorgulescu did not mention his income from this same source in 2004, which staid at roughly USD 10,000.

His words today to priests and intellectuals and artists who collaborated with the Securitate are: "All these people ate shit to achieve their personal interests, not for being under duress. All these buffoons should step out from public life … because they destroyed the moral fabric of the nation."

The National Council for the Study of the Archives of the Securitate as well as the professional associations of various artistic guilds did not hurry into disclosing the names of the people Iorgulescu targeted.

This only sent him into further ranting against those ripping the benefits of staying at the helm both during communism and after its fall.

Iorgulescu forgot his more recent political past, it seems.

He entered the political arena as a member of the Romania’s Alternative Party. Who recalls now this name or that the party was adopted by the Democratic Convention in Romania, which actually provided a seat in the parliament for Iorgulescu?

In 1999 he was with the newly formed Union of the Right-Wing Forces. During his four years of parliament membership he spoke once in plenary session and filed three legislative proposals, two of which he later withdrew, and one of which was cashed.

Since 2003 he is a member of the National Liberal Party.

Iorgulescu sense of what party will arrive at the top, for him to join in due time, is to be admired.

Of the funds collected by the Association for Intellectual Property Rights of the Romanian Union of Composers, a third goes to administrative expenditures, including the salaries of the hired personnel, of which president Iorgulescu is a part. The association also cashes in the interest rates from the deposits made in banks on its name by radios, television channels and cable operators, disco venues or restaurants.

Translated by Anca Paduraru