This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BUCHAREST 003500 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - WILLIAM SILKWORTH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL RO
SUBJECT:  INAUGURATION SPEECH DELIVERED BY NEWLY ELECTED 
ROMANIAN PRESIDENT TRAIAN BASESCU 
 
 
¶1. On December 20, 2004, before a joint session of 
Parliament, newly elected Romanian President Traian Basescu 
delivered his inauguration speech. 
 
¶2. The text of Embassy Bucharest's unofficial translation of 
President Basescu's inauguration speech follows below: 
 
"Mr. President of the Senate, Mr. President of the Chamber 
of Deputies, President Ion Iliescu, distinguished MPs of 
Romania, distinguished representatives of the Diplomatic 
Core, distinguished representatives of the Church, esteemed 
citizens, dear compatriots: 
 
Through the democratic will of the people, I have been 
elected President of Romania.  This vote leads me to have 
greater respect for what I stated when I launched my 
candidacy for the supreme function of the state - to assure 
the citizens of this country once again that I will be the 
President of all Romanians, a powerful, impartial, active 
President, who will dedicate himself 24 hours a day, seven 
days a week to the Romanian nation. 
 
This is my promise to the Romanian people.  I assure you 
that the next five years of my Presidential term in office 
will be years in which Romania will become a different 
country, a functional country, through applying and 
respecting the laws, a country which will be made noteworthy 
through its people.  The Romanian nation needs a President 
who will represent it with dignity, who will work closely 
with state institutions in order to get Romania out of the 
sewer of poverty and corruption.  I will consider that I 
have succeeded in my mandate if I succeed in uniting the 
entire population around the objectives of domestic and 
foreign policies.  We cannot talk about dignifying 
integration in the E.U. without solving the major problems 
of Romania - corruption and poverty. 
 
Dear MPs, I assure you that I will collaborate well with 
state institutions to fight the corruption and poverty that 
has been eating away at society, at the Romanian public and 
at the political system.  Corruption at a high level 
provokes poverty.  These are two things that are necessary 
to one another - corruption and poverty.  Right now, 
corruption at a high level represents the most serious 
danger to [our] national security.  We don't need to mask 
poverty under statistics.  Too many retired people have 
pensions smaller than their heating bills in the winter. 
Too many peasants live in poverty, no matter how rich the 
crops are.  Too many young people have begun to believe that 
Romania is no longer a country that has opportunities.  This 
reality must be changed. 
 
To enter life as a poor young person because of an unjust 
system of promotions and careers is the heaviest burden that 
a young Romanian can bear.  Millions of retired people need 
a healthy old age, which must be protected by a health 
insurance system meant to help them, not to bring the ill 
and the old to desperation when they need medicines and, 
equally, respect for their years of work.  As President of 
the Supreme Council of National Defense, I will include the 
fight against high-level corruption in the strategy of 
defending the country.  A fundamental priority of my mandate 
will also be removing state institutions from political 
control.  I will not accept any political interference in 
state institutions, which must function according to the 
Constitution and the laws of the country.  They must be 
immediately de-politicized and put at the service of the 
citizens.  Messrs. MPs, the acute differences between the 
rural and the urban environments are another major problem 
of our society. 
 
I want to assure you and all the citizens of this country 
that there are not several Romanias - there are merely 
politicians who slice Romania up according to their parties' 
interests and their power of influence.  As President of the 
state, I will defend and promote the interests of every 
Romanian citizen, be that citizen peasant, townsman, member 
of some minority group, child, youngster, pensioner, woman, 
man, rich or poor.  I will be the President of all Romanians 
in one and the same Romania.  I will mediate the 
relationship with the Parliament stubbornly and in good 
faith.  We need a Parliament that is active and reactive to 
the signals from this country's citizens.  We must act in 
such a manner that Romanians begin to trust the political 
and law institutions of the Romanian state, after 15 years. 
I will militate for a Parliament that will be an institution 
that represents the interests of those who have chosen it, 
and not a mechanism for the interests of political party 
clients.  I will be a dedicated defender of the freedom of 
the press, which in recent years has experienced serious 
setbacks due to unparalleled political constraints and 
pressures, applied against the Romanian media.  Confiscating 
the freedom of the press is the first step to confiscating 
the freedoms of the citizens. 
 
The successes of democracy cannot take place without the 
existence of a free press, the right to speech and the 
freedom of expression.  I want to assure you that the new 
President of Romania will support civil society.  Romania 
needs its civil society to step up its pace in the role of 
defender and promoter of the rights of every citizen. 
Education, religion, and culture are the surest and 
steadiest gates by which the Romanian spirit may enter the 
family of universal spirits. 
 
I will defend the strategic interests of Romania where 
foreign policy is concerned and I will make our country a 
partner with a highly regarded word.  I will open the 
horizons of Romania's foreign policy to all cardinal points, 
in a moment when our country needs allies, partners, and 
friends in all the democratic countries of the world.  A 
major priority in foreign policy and in the positive 
evolution of Romania is integration into the European Union. 
Integration into the European Union is an element of power 
in the foreign policy of Romania.  The integration process 
will include both the values of an action based on 
cooperation with the European Commission, and the values of 
making the best of the traditional bilateral relations that 
Romania has with countries such as France, Germany, Spain, 
Italy, Hungary, Poland, Italy and many other European 
countries.  It is extremely clear that now, after ending the 
negotiations for integration, the fight for integration 
takes place inside Romania.  Here is the place where we must 
fulfill the obligations assumed by Romania's government in 
the process of negotiations.  The tough fight to integrate 
into the E.U. must be won at home.  Here is where we must 
obtain the standards of economic and social compatibility 
with the European Union. 
 
Another priority in Romania's foreign policy will be to 
consolidate our position in NATO.  It is essential for 
Romania to obtain a position and an influence that reflect 
its real value in this organization, but that also reflect 
its value as a country able to ensure stability south of the 
Danube and east of the Prut River, developing good relations 
with the countries of the former Yugoslavia, with Ukraine 
and with Russia. 
 
We must bear in mind that there are more than six million 
Romanians who have become citizens of other countries, such 
as Canada, Australia, the U.S., Germany, France, Spain, 
Italy and many other countries of the world.  We have a duty 
to re-establish relations with the Romanian diaspora.  We 
have a duty to make these people, who have left their 
country for one reason or another, feel that the mother- 
country mourns for them, that their origin country treats 
them with respect, that Romania is a modern state, a 
powerful state, a state that respects foreign citizens of 
Romanian origins, making them feel that they are part of the 
Romanian people.  The Republic of Moldova will benefit from 
all the openness of the authorities in Bucharest, both in 
the processes of modernizing the country and in bolstering 
the sense that part of that country's people are a part of 
the Romanian people. 
 
Above these priorities, Romania will develop privileged 
relations with the U.S. and Great Britain, countries with 
which a strategic partnership has developed even since 1995. 
Distinguished MPs, we all have a very important mission.  If 
the politicians don't explain to the citizens what the costs 
of the integration process are, it can be transformed into a 
failure.  We need solidarity regarding integration, in order 
for every citizen to accept the costs of this process.  We 
need an integration process under which the Romanian people 
will be united, to be able to enjoy the benefits of joining 
the E.U.  I want us to be united in one common effort, and 
supported by the modernization of the economy based on the 
principles of rule of law; a dignified Romania, trusting its 
future.  Belonging to one political party or another must 
not prevent us from working together for the citizens who 
have invested us with equal amounts of power and 
responsibility. 
 
Please allow me to say a special word to the young 
Parliamentarians.  Dear novice Parliamentarians, I want to 
assure you of one thing: I have great confidence in you, 
regardless of your political affiliation.  Your promotion to 
the superior forum of this country leads me to congratulate 
all those party presidents who nominated you to the 
Parliamentary lists.  I have always been a supporter of 
rejuvenating the political class, against many skeptical 
voices.  This is why, to convince these skeptics, my wish is 
that you will be my main collaborators, and I urge you to 
consider me your supporter.  First, you must transform this 
institution, the Parliament, into a force and an engine of 
social, political, economical, cultural changes.  I have 
confidence that you will be active and courageous and that 
you will make all of us who are citizens of this country 
recognize and change the image of the Romanian politician. 
I thank you for being here and I hope that you will keep the 
freshness of your minds and souls. 
 
Parliamentarians, dear Romanians, citizens of my country, I 
ask you to be near me in the next 5 years.  I bear in my 
soul the flag of Romania and you around it.  You have my 
word as President that I will serve you with power, good 
faith, and trust.  We will be together during all trials and 
difficulties, but above all we will be together in a better 
life, marked by victories and success.  We will live well, 
in a Romania of Romanians, a European Romania.  So help us 
God!"  End text. 
¶3. Amembassy Bucharest's reporting telegrams, as well as 
daily press summaries, are available on the Bucharest 
SIPRNet website:  www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/bucharest 
 
CROUCH