Fierce battle for Romanian presidency

Outgoing conservative president faces impeachment with centre-right in disarray.

The leader of the Romanian senate has announced a plan to impeach the country’s president just months before Traian Băsescu is due to stand down after completing two terms. The move, announced on Monday (8 September), is the latest development in the fast-changing and politically opaque run-up to the elections in November to choose Băsescu’s replacement.

The clear frontrunner at present is a socialist, Prime Minister Victor Ponta. However, Ponta faces a possible run-off against the popular mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Johannis, the recently-elected leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL). Johannis will be vying for votes on the centre-right with Monica Macovei, an independent MEP with a strong record of fighting corruption, and Elena Udrea, a former minister.

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Udrea’s conservative party was formed earlier this year and has is seen as closely allied to Băsescu. The link has led to speculation that Udrea is running to split the conservative vote, as part of a deal that would see Ponta grant Băsescu immunity from prosecution.

Johannis’s most significant threat on the right, though, appears to come from the man who is leading the bid to impeach Băsescu, senate leader Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu.

Popescu-Tăriceanu, a former prime minister, this year left the PNL to lead a new right-of-centre party. Băsescu has survived impeachment twice.

Separately, one of the few points of public unity between Ponta and Băsescu evaporated last week when Ponta changed Romania’s nominee to the European Commission. Romania had initially forwarded two names to the Commission’s incoming president, Jean-Claude Juncker, but Băsescu and Ponta had agreed that the leading candidate should be Dacian Cioloş, Romania’s serving commissioner and a politically non-aligned technocrat.

At the last minute, however, Ponta nominated Romania’s second choice, Corina Creţu, a socialist vice-president of the European Parliament. The reason for the change remains unclear, but in Bucharest Cioloş’s chances of a second term as agriculture commissioner were believed to have lessened.