Financiarul

Romanians want to put a halt to the privileges of the political class and witness a rapid modernisation of the State, President Traian Basescu said on Tuesday, arguing that politicians have not understood anything of the November 22 referendum and as a result they are conducting public talks about ‘trading’ in votes.

‘I believe that politicians confirm their illness: disregard to Romanians. They must understand that votes are not cast to be stored, to be traded or to be haggled in the interest of political cronies. Votes signify trust and the day after you have received them you have to start a valiant fight to defend them,’ Basescu explained at a news conference at this campaign headquarters.

He voiced hope that his statement will put an end to talks involving him, as he has not asked politicians for the votes of Romanians and he will not do so.
‘Consequent to what I did every time I canvassed, I did not negotiate my tenure. My only partner in the presidential runoff is the Romanian people, the voters of Romania, the Romanian voters overseas, and not in the least politicians.

I am kindly asking those anxious to sell their votes for winning offices in a future government or public administration to do what they want to but start mentioning the name Traian Basescu, because I am not negotiating with them. I have no intention of negotiating for the votes of Romanians. You have to win the votes not haggle for them,’ said Basescu, an independent candidate endorsed by the Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L) for the December 6 presidential runoff.

Basescu pointed out that he twice won the office of Bucharest general mayor and once the presidency of Romania in direct ballots, and his belief is that you do not haggle for votes, you do not trade in votes, because they are not some tradable commodity, but the expression of trust in a politician.

‘Over the past two days, I have noticed that politicians have understood nothing of the signals from more than nine million Romanians who showed up to vote in Sunday’s election and public debates now are related to trading in votes. These debates are affecting me at a personal level because I have done no gesture and asked no politician from any political party for the votes they won in the Sunday’s election,’ he explained.

Basescu also said that the signal coming from Romanians at the Sunday’s referendum on a single-chamber parliament is that they want to put a halt to the privileges of the political class, the wages and pensions of the politicians.
He added that the determination of Romanians to get involved in reforming the State and the political class makes him feel optimistic. ‘Romania does not have enough money to also secure the privileges of and satisfy the greed of Mr. Patriciu, Mr. Vantu, Mr. Voiculescu, Mr. Hrebenciuc, Mr. Vanghelie and many more others like them,’ said Basescu.