Romanian President Warns UDMR against Opting Out Of the Ruling Coalition

President Traian Basescu used again his former adviser Elena Udrea as an informal spokesperson, or tool for speaking his mind with political impunity, this time to bring back into submission the Democrat Union of Hungarians in Romania, or UDMR.

Udrea said during a live television talk show Tuesday evening, on Antena 3 TV channel, that one of the politicians standing on the Senate Committee for the control of the counter-intelligence office objected the decision Monday of the Supreme Council for Defense to make public the files on political figures. "

Could it be that many of his fellow party members were among the people cooperating with the communist intelligence services?" asked rhetorically Udrea.

I was on the set of that TV show, so I asked Udrea a follow up question, namely if the critical voice was that of a liberal senator. "No," she said, "adding that still, the man belonged to the ruling coalition."

Well, that makes it easy, since on that session of the Senate Committee the ruling coalition was represented by liberal and UDMR senators only.

So, why would have been so important for Basescu, via Udrea, to issue a stern warning to UDMR?!

It may be that Friday UDMR leader Bela Marko said his party was planning to opt out of the current coalition, and kept its options clear.

On Monday, the Supreme Council for Defense headed by Basescu decided it was time to make public the files of parliamentarians and other public persons.

Pour les connoisseurs, Basescu’s move was even more surprising, since among those files stay one of a female politician and another of a television star which are very dear to him.

Tuesday Marko retracted, or rather nuanced his stance, saying the UDMR would reanalyze its policy towards coalition partners starting January 1st, 2007.

So, did Basescu warn UDMR to ponder more over its planned political move with the decision adopted in the Supreme Council for Defense? And was Marko responding to this warning with relegating to a later date the UDMR move?

If so, why would Udrea have made public this trade-off Tuesday evening in a television show?

Was it a signal to UDMR that it should give up pressing ahead with the adoption of the Statute for Minorities? If so, hard times are ahead for the ethnic political party, likely to put its very existence into question.

The riddle Udrea’s message held could be broken up if finding out the answers to three questions:

Did the Council for the study of the files of the former Securitate receive all files of political figures?

Are there among them the files of the UDMR political leaders?

Are there among them the files of the famous female political figure and that of the television star dear to Basescu?

Translated by ANCA PADURARU