Basescu’s ultimatum to PD-L MPs: Either contracts with the state or politics

President Traian Basescu yesterday demanded PD-L (Liberal-Democratic Party) members of Parliament to drop any contracts with the state, trying to provide at the same time a message of comfort to the pensioners who will lose 15% of their pensions as of the 1st of June. MPs of the main ruling party have found it hard to explain the pension cut to their constituencies, which is why talks were conducted on a rather tense tone in the meeting room where the PD-L senators and deputies met with the head of state yesterday.
The MPs requested the pension "cut" to not be that drastic, or at least to be gradual, while the head of state warned them that by doing business with the state, many of the party's important officials were driving the PD-L towards the position of a "dishonest" party anyway.
"The President demanded that we drop our businesses. He told us it was not fair to be appointed to a position and take advantage of it to benefit your own business," one of the MPs of the main ruling party said.
The idea of dropping contracts with the state is nothing new for Basescu, who had previously demanded PD members of the Bucharest's General City Council to drop contracts with the state while he was Bucharest's Mayor in 2002. It was a heavy blow dealt to his PD lieutenants, as many of them had construction companies working on asphalting the city's boulevards.