Role of police and gendarmes

On Monday, Minister of the Interior Vasile Blaga resigned after President Traian Basescu, the head of state, said he would no longer accept a police escort because thousands of police and gendarmes broke the law during protests last week.

Having had their salaries cut by 25% alongside every other state employee in Romania, police workers gathered on Friday in front of the government building to protest against austerity measures.



Since Prime Minister Emil Boc was in New York attending the UN General Assembly, the anger of the protesters was channeled towards the president. The gendarmes called to maintain public order did nothing to stop six thousand police employees marching towards the Presidential compound, where they jeered at the president and threw their uniform caps over the walls.

“I think the most serious thing among the illegalities committed by the policemen who went on an unauthorized march was the simple fact that they undermined the authority of the Romanian state and the institutions of the Romanian state. I, as president, cannot associate the Romanian Presidency as an institution, and the Romanian president, with the employees of an institution who violated the law in such a serious manner.This is the reason for which I instructed the Guard and Protection Service to cease using the services of the Ministry of the Interior”, responded president Băsescu.

Having returned home, the prime minister, barely off the airplane in Bucharest, said he would also drop his traffic police escort. Publicly bashed by both the president and the prime minister, the interior minister Vasile Blaga was left with no other choice but to resign.

For political analysts, his departure is another victory for Basescu against the so-called ‘heavies’ in the Liberal Democratic Party, who are more and more vocal in questioning his authority.

Generally seen as an effective minister, whose main mission now was to prepare Romania’s entry into the Schengen area, Blaga survived the recent reshuffling which helped Basescu get rid of two old party barons, Adriean Videanu, Economy, and Radu Berceanu, Transport.

However, beyond the power games in a party whose popularity is waning, the press is worried about the fact that these events could result in a serious loss of credibility for vital state institutions – the Presidency, the Police and the Gendarme Corps – who risk losing the crust of credibility they still have.

(Radio România Internaţional, Serviciul în limba engleză).