Sorin Oprescu’s Hit

The notice about the termination of the contract with Dali, the company strongly related to Traian Băsescu, deserves to be welcomed.

The notice about the termination of the contract with Dali, the company strongly related to Traian Băsescu, deserves to be welcomed.

After about two weeks from Sorin Oprescu's victory, I was wondering, during my show on Antena 3, if the moment was possible as a result of a deal between the candidate and the Mafia around the Bucharest City Hall.
It wasn’t a meaningless question. During the campaign, I showed my serious doubts regarding Sorin Oprescu’s chances to win. Like many other Bucharest inhabitants, I knew that the City Hall had been the source of money for a great part of the Mafia in Romania. Even more than a Head of Government, the mayor of the capital has unlimited opportunities to feed the Mafia. This was seen indeed during the eight-year mandate of Traian Băsescu. We say eight years, even though Traian Băsescu stood at the City Hall for only five years, because Adriean Videanu was no more than a face on Traian Băsescu’s seat after he became President. During the eight years of Traian Băsescu leadership, Bucharest has been robbed by the Mafia with the help of suspect contracts, fixed auctions, and of the retrocession procedures. The Mafia was afraid it might lose Bucharest in case Vasile Blaga didn’t win and this was seen during the campaign for the second round of local elections. As I wrote before, I have never met such a trustification of the politicians, journalists, and members of the civil society against a candidate since 1990. The unequivocal expression of this fear brought the unconstitutional involvement of Traian Băsescu in supporting Vasile Blaga. It wasn’t just a passing statement about the qualities of Vasile Blaga, but an entire campaign against Sorin Oprescu, attacked by the President in a more aggressive way than a journalist would do it. Always present in the media supporting the President, the allegations made against Sorin Oprescu have embraced a wide range of security-type accusations: from the family to the profession.

A stunned witness of that campaign, I realized that, for the Mafia with strong relations in politics and in the press, Vasile Blaga's victory was a matter of life and death. There is no other way to explain the incredible sums of money at stake for the Democrat-Liberal candidate.

As promised in my skeptical statements regarding a possible defeat of the Mafia, in the evening of the second round, I showed up wearing a bow tie at Sinteza Zilei, the show on Antena 3. I repeat, for the ones that cannot get a hint: I wasn’t celebrating; it was the sign of the fact that I had been wrong. After the elections, because time passed and Sorin Oprescu didn’t make any gesture meant to prove that he was going to attack the Mafia, I launched the hypothesis of a prior understanding with the great gangsters that had been robbing the Capital. I was drawing the public’s attention towards a certain fact during that show: the Bucharest inhabitants did not choose Sorin Oprescu to finish the projects that were supposed to improve the traffic and reduce the misery. If they chose depending on projects, Vasile Blaga would have been the current general mayor of Bucharest.
The Bucharest inhabitants have chosen Sorin Oprescu, because they felt he was able to change something in the politics of the General City Hall: greater transparency in terms of contracts, the replacement of directors who have rotted in the City Hall, a greater attention of the mayor for the ordinary citizens.

On Friday, the 11th of July 2008, a month after his sensational victory, Sorin Oprescu held a press conference on the general status of the Bucharest City Hall. The conference met the directions of the campaign carried out by Sorin Oprescu after the second round of elections. His statements during the conference were meant to build up the trust of the electors that preferred him to Vasile Blaga. A partial answer, however.

The notice about the termination of the contract with Dali, the company strongly related to Traian Băsescu, deserves to be welcomed.  The contract with Dali is a symbolical contract for what the Bucharest inhabitants considered to be the City Hall’s political customers. The predictable reaction of the press put into the service of the Cotroceni Mafia shows that Sorin Oprescu has targeted well. It's not enough, however. Fulfilling the mandate given by Bucharest inhabitants requires much more. Sorin Oprescu has to put all the contracts and retrocession activities of the City Hall on the official website of the institution. This has to be only the beginning.