Maclean’s, Canada
October 1, 2007

What’s Romanian for buffoon?

BY PATRICIA TREBLE

President Traian Basescu is being investigated by Romania’s National
Council to Combat Discrimination. Again. This time the watchdog is
examining a questionable comment uttered when Basescu publicly
praised his surgeon Mircea Ghemigian following a thyroid operation:
"Finally, I see a good Armenian." He quickly changed that to "a
competent Armenian," but the damage was done.

The remark was apparently a veiled barb aimed at Economy Minister
Varujan Vosganian of the governing Liberal party, an ethnic Armenian
as well as a political rival who has previously called the president
"a risk for democracy." For years, Romanian politicians have been
entangled in a seemingly unending series of bitter disputes. In May,
after the ruling coalition alleged the president had abused power and
suspended him from office, Basescu was reinstated when an impeachment
referendum returned a favourable vote of 75 per cent. But that same
day, he lost his temper after being confronted by a TV reporter who
was trying to interview him with a camera cellphone while he was
shopping with his wife. Basescu grabbed the phone and later, not
realizing it was still recording, called the reporter "a stinking
gypsy." When Andreea Pana (who isn’t Roma) got her phone back, her
station aired the comments, and the first anti-discrimination
investigation was launched. The agency gave Basescu an official
warning, ruling his remark was "degrading."

Now Vosganian, also head of the Armenian Union in Romania, has called
the president’s most recent statements "an extremely serious insult"
to the country’s tiny Armenian population whose members are fully
integrated, having lived in Romania for centuries. If his comment is
deemed discriminatory or an incitement to ethnic hatred, the
president could face a fine and a criminal record.