European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building Working Paper No. 1 s Romanian Coalition for a Clean Parliament: a Quest for Political Integrity ERCAS WorkingPaper 2005 www.againstcorruption.eu ROMANIAN COALITION FOR A CLEAN PARLIAMENT A QUEST FOR POLITICAL INTEGRITY www.polirom.ro Editura POLIROM Ia[i, B-dul Carol I nr. 4, P.O. BOX 266, 700506 Bucure[ti, B-dul I.C. Br\tianu nr. 6, et. 7, ap. 33, O.P. 37, P.O. BOX 1-728, 030174 Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Na]ionale a României: A quest for political Integrity / with an introductory essay by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi. Ia[i: Polirom, 2005. ISBN: 973-46-0038-9 I. Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina (pref.) 32(498) Printed in ROMANIA ROMANIAN COALITION FOR A CLEAN PARLIAMENT A QUEST FOR POLITICAL INTEGRITY With an introductory essay by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi POLIROM 2005 Contents Fighting political corruption in postcommunist Europe ( Alina Mungiu-Pippidi ) ....................7 I. The Story in Documents ............................................................................... 19 1. Manifesto .............................................................................................. 19 2. Meet your Candidates Program. A proposal on behalf of the Romanian Coalition for a Clean Parliament ........................................... 20 3. Mediafax News agency .............................................................................. 27 4. Associated Press News agency .................................................................... 28 5. Financial Times ....................................................................................... 28 6. Coalition for a Clean Parliament: Press release .............................................. 29 7. Mediafax News agency .............................................................................. 30 8. The Social Democratic Party (SDP), Department for Media Relations: Press release .............................................. 32 9. Democratic Party: Response for the attention of the Coalition for a Clean Parliament ......................................................... 32 10. ROMPRES News agency: Democratic Party excludes seven people from its lists for the parliamentary elections ................................ 33 11. Romanian Coalition for a Clean Parliament to the Council for Moral Integrity of SDP ..................................................... 34 12. Social Democratic Party, Council for Moral Integrity: Response for the attention of the Coalition for a Clean Parliament ....................... 35 13. Social Democratic Party, Department for Media Relations: Press release .............. 37 14. Social Democratic Party, Department for Media Relations: Press release .......................................................................................... 37 15. Coalition for a Clean Parliament: Response to the received appeals .................... 38 16. Ziua newspaper: Dont vote for them! ..................................................... 40 17. Gardianul newspaper: SDP+HP: B\sescu and T\riceanu are hiding behind Pippidis skirts!............................................................. 41 18. Associated Press News agency: Romanian civic groups publish lists of allegedly corrupt and unfit politicians ........................... 41 19. Wall Street Journal: Romania. List of allegedly corrupt Romanian politicians published ....................................................... 42 20. SDP + HP National Union, Department for Relations with the Mass Media: Press release Coalition for a Clean Parliament and Alina Mungiu interfere with voting intentions ........................... 43 21. Coalition for a Clean Parliament: Press release .............................................. 44 22. Jurnalul Na]ional newspaper ....................................................................... 44 23. Open letter to the Coalition for a Clean Parliament .......................................... 45 24. SDP+HP National Union, Department for Media Relations: Press release ........... 47 25. Coalition for a Clean Parliament: Press release .............................................. 48 26. Reuters News agency: Press release Leaflets dissemination campaign ............ 50 27. Coalition for a Clean Parliament: Press conference On the fake leaflets ......... 51 28. Coalition for a Clean Parliament: Press release .............................................. 51 29. Helsinki Federation Report. Elections in Romania on 28 November 2004: NGO Coalition for a Cleaner Parliament under threat for trying to inform voters about candidates with a questionable record ............................ 53 II. Newspaper Editorials and Interviews .............................................................. 57 1. The leaflets menace (Cornel Nistorescu, Evenimentul Zilei ) ............................ 57 2. Several parties but just one piovra. Interview with Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (Eugen Istodor, Academia Ca]avencu ) .......................................................... 58 3. Coalition for a Dirty Parliament (Zoe Petre, Ziua ) ....................................... 60 4. The benefit of the doubt (Cornel Codi]\, Bursa ) .......................................... 62 5. «La presse roumaine en campagne contre la corruption» (Mirel Bran, Le Monde ) ... 64 6. Cardboard reform (Cristian P^rvulescu, Bursa ) ........................................... 65 7. Prime Minister N\stase on the Coalition for a Clean Parliament: Had I been mean, I still was nice as long as I stroke a deal with them (Loredana Voiculescu, Adev\rul ) ................................................................. 67 8. The Prime Ministers BLAT (Andreea Pora, Evenimentul Zilei ) ..................... 67 9. After the Coalition for a Clean Parliament declared him incompatible with the holding of elected office, Iliescu wants his own civil society (Raluca Dumitru, Curentul )........................................................................ 69 10. Poisoned leaflets: large scale operation ( Evenimentul Zilei ) .......................... 71 11. German press on SDP elite bandits ( Ziua ) ................................................ 72 12. The (lost) honour of Prime Minister N\stase (Sabina Fati, Evenimentul Zilei ) ..... 73 13. «La corruption des élites domine les élections en Roumanie» ( Le Monde ).............. 74 III. Final Lists of the Coalition for a Clean Parliament as Published 4.11.2004 ........... 77 1. Names on the SDP+HP Union lists ............................................................. 77 2. Greater Romania Party (GRP) ..................................................................... 96 3. Justice and Truth Alliance (NLP-DP) .......................................................... 105 4. Democratic Alliance of Hungarians from Romania (DAHR) .............................. 106 IV. Organizations ............................................................................................ 109 1. The Romanian Academic Society (SAR) ....................................................... 109 2. The Group for Social Dialogue (GDS) ......................................................... 110 3. The Association of Political Science Students (APSS) ...................................... 111 4. Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Romania Helsinki Committee (APADOR-CH)............................................................ 111 5. Asocia]ia Pro Democra]ia (ADP) ................................................................ 113 6. Freedom House Romania .......................................................................... 114 7. Center for Independent Journalism (CJI) ...................................................... 115 8. Civic Alliance........................................................................................ 116 9. Media Monitoring Agency ........................................................................ 117 10. Open Society Foundation (OSF) ................................................................. 119 Fighting political corruption in postcommunist Europe The main story This book is about an anticorruption campaign that took place in Romania in 2004 and which prevented nearly one hundred controversial MPs from being reelected. While this campaign was considered original by many observers, the problems it addressed are widespread in the postcommunist world: political elites which at times look more like predatory elites, high state capture, constituencies with low civic competence and low interest in politics. This situation looks at times hopeless in the Balkans and former Soviet Union. But it is not. By and large, what we present here is a success story. On the occasion of the local elections in June 2004 and the legislative and presidential elections in November and December, Romanian civil society organized itself for the first time into a broad coalition for integrity in politics: the Coalition for a Clean Parliament (CCP). Frustrated by the governments lack of effectiveness in fighting large-scale corruption, civil society took matters into its own hands. The CCP first determined the criteria that would make a candidate unfit for a clean Parliament. These criteria were 1) having repeatedly shifted from one political party to another in search of personal profit; 2) having been accused of corruption on the basis of published and verifiable evidence; 3) having been exposed as an agent of the Securitate (Ceau[escus former secret service); 4) being the owner of a private firm with important tax