US embassy cable - 05BUCHAREST716

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000716 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/NCE - WILLIAM SILKWORTH 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/21/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, SOCI, PHUM, RO 
SUBJECT: A WOLF IN WOLF'S CLOTHING: ROMANIAN EXTREMIST 
PARTY TRIES TO CHANGE ITS IMAGE 
 
Classified By: DEPUTY POLITICAL SECTION CHIEF CHRISTOPHER PALMER FOR RE 
ASONS 1.4 B AND D 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary:  The extreme nationalist Greater Romania 
Party (PRM) changed its name to the Greater Romania Popular 
Party (PPRM) March 12, a move aimed at burnishing its 
tarnished image and facilitating its affiliation with the 
center-right European Popular Party (EPP).  Corneliu Vadim 
Tudor, outspoken xenophobe, political chameleon and PRM,s 
founder and leader, formally renounced de jure leadership of 
the &new8 party but will serve as PPRM,s &Honorary 
President,8 publicly boasting that he will retain control of 
the party.  While President Basescu's National Liberal 
Party-Democratic Party coalition remains skeptical of PRM's 
"transformation," leaders of the former ruling center-left 
Social Democratic Party (PSD) express willingness to work 
with a &democratic8 PRM.  End Summary. 
 
&Strategic Moves8 To Change the Party,s Image 
--------------------------------------------- 
2. (SBU) The National Council of the Greater Romania Party 
(PRM) voted unanimously March 12 at the urging of party 
founder and president Corneliu Vadim Tudor to change the 
party,s name to the Greater Romania Popular Party (PPRM). 
Tudor also formally renounced his executive responsibilities 
and the Council elected him &honorary president.8  The 
PPRM,s new president is the PRM,s former first 
vice-president Corneliu Ciontu, a PRM deputy since 1996 and 
currently a Chamber of Deputies Vice President.  Ciontu, aged 
63 and a sociologist by training, holds a relatively low 
profile and is widely viewed as personally loyal to Tudor. 
Like his mentor Tudor * a &court poet8 to dictator Nicolae 
Ceausescu and his wife Elena - Ciontu was loyal to the 
communist regime, serving as a Romanian Communist Party 
activist from 1973 to 1989. 
 
3. (SBU) During a press conference following the PRM,s 
National Council,  Tudor acknowledged that the PRM had made a 
&strategic move8 aimed at improving the party,s image and 
breaking the &informational blockade8 imposed on PRM by 
mainstream European parties.   Alleging that PRM was the main 
victim of &electoral fraud8 in the 2004 parliamentary and 
presidential elections, Tudor claimed that his party needs 
&European protection8, referring to the PRM,s ongoing 
efforts to join the center-right EPP. 
 
4. (SBU) Tudor also voiced &great disappointment8 with the 
party he founded, asserting that the PRM is fraught with 
endless internal fights.  Tudor declared that he decided to 
step down because he was tired of trying unsuccessfully to 
&calm down egos8 and no longer wanted to deal with 
&fools8 from PRM local organizations.  He claimed that he 
plans to dedicate more time to setting up a new TV station 
and to completing his doctoral dissertation on &The Presence 
of Angels in the Bible.8 
 
PRM's Declining Public Support 
------------------------------- 
5. (SBU) The announced changes coincide with the party,s 
declining popularity.  An INSOMAR poll released March 13 
credits the PRM with only 5 percent of popular support and 
political analysts agree that Tudor,s and the party,s 
relatively weak showing in the 2004 parliamentary elections 
exacerbated divisions within the party.  Discontented PRM 
members note that, for the first time ever, the party as a 
whole gained a larger percentage of the national popular vote 
in parliamentary elections, than its charismatic leader and 
three time presidential candidate, Tudor, garnered in the 
first round presidential contest (12.99 percent in the 
Chamber of Deputies and 13.65 percent in the Senate vs. 
Tudor's 12.57 percent).  Following the 2004 elections, a 
number of local PRM activists called for changes in the 
party,s leadership and prominent PRM senator Mihai Lupoi 
resigned from the party, accusing Vadim Tudor of extremism 
and a dictatorial leadership style. 
 
6. (C) Tudor,s campaign over the past few years to shed his 
virulently anti-Semitic image by embracing what he calls 
&philosemitism8 has failed to convince Romanians or the 
international community at large that he has become, as he 
claims, a mainstream conservative in the Christian Democratic 
mold.  Tudor,s attempts to cultivate a mainstream image for 
the party correspond with his unsuccessful attempts to join 
the European Popular Party (EPP), a move aimed at giving the 
party greater internal and external legitimacy.  However, the 
EPP has rebuffed the PRM,s overtures and some analysts 
assert that the EPP called for Tudor's complete ouster from 
the party, given his long record of Holocaust denial, as well 
as anti-Hungarian and anti-Roma statements.  Some also allege 
that the Israeli-owned consulting company, Arad 
Communications, urged Tudor to step into the background and 
to rename the party.  His own attitude toward the erstwhile 
PRM President is clearly evident in his contentious award to 
Tudor of Romania's highest honor - the Star of Romania - in 
the waning weeks of PSD-controlled government. 
 
The More Things Change. . . 
--------------------------- 
7. (SBU) Tudor,s statement that he will continue to control 
the party, coupled with Corneliu Ciontu,s acknowledgment of 
Tudor as &uncontested leader of the party8 have convinced 
independent observers that Tudor remains at PPRM's helm. 
Only the former ruling center-left Social Democrat Party 
(PSD), which finds itself in the parliamentary opposition 
with Tudor,s party, accepted the PRM,s metamorphosis at 
face value: the PSD spokesperson stated in a news conference 
that the party is ready to work closely with a &democratic8 
PPRM.  Ex-PM and PSD president Adrian Nastase said that Vadim 
Tudor,s decision to step down was a &proof of wisdom8 and 
&an extremely important decision,8 while former president 
Ion Iliescu declared that the changes &could lead to 
something interesting.8  In an interview with a popular TV 
station, Iliescu also indirectly slammed Nastase for 
discounting the importance of PRM votes in last fall,s 
elections. 
 
8. (SBU) Leaders from the governing parliamentary coalition 
dismissed out of hand the PRM,s alleged transformation. 
Democratic Party acting President Emil Boc and the leader of 
the ethnic Hungarian Party (UDMR), Marko Bela, asserted that 
PRM's name change and the withdrawal of Vadim from the front 
line are merely &sham8 changes aimed at duping the EPP and 
fooling the Romanian public.  Although National Liberal Party 
(PNL) and Romanian Humanist Party (PUR) representatives 
publicly welcomed the PRM,s attempts to transform its image, 
they expressed caution over the substance of this change, 
given Tudor's continued role within the party.  (Note:  PNL 
and PD leaders have repeatedly insisted publicly and in 
private meetings with Embassy officers that they will not 
enter into a coalition with Tudor.  End Note.)  Widely 
respected Timisoara mayor Gheorghe Ciuhandu, leader of the 
tiny center-right Christian-Democrat Popular Party (PPCD), 
criticized PRM,s  &faade8 change.  The UDMR and PPCD 
declarations are especially resonant since these parties are 
the only two Romanian parties currently affiliated with the 
EPP. 
 
9. (C) Comment:   Political analysts widely predicted a PRM 
attempt at auto-transformation, given the PRM's declining 
public support and growing discord within a party where some 
members view extremist Tudor as the primary obstacle to the 
PRM's integration into mainstream Romanian and European 
politics.  Indeed, senior PSD officials predicted last fall 
that the PRM's attempt at a "makeover" would include the 
purely cosmetic change of renaming the party in early 2005, 
and possibly, changing Tudor's formal role within the party. 
They also hinted that a PSD-PRM alliance would be possible if 
PRM sufficiently changed its image.  In post,s view, the 
&new8 PPRM remains, for all intents and purposes, the 
&old8 PRM, albeit with a slightly new name, still under the 
de facto control of extremist xenophobe Corneliu Vadim Tudor. 
 End Comment. 
 
10. (C) Naturally, the maneuverings described here are not 
taking place in a vacuum.  Despite his extremism, Tudor has 
been a constant and sometimes, even eloquent, proponent of 
tough anti-corruption measures.  His fire on that issue, at 
least for the moment has been stolen by practical moves of 
the new Center Right Coalition against tax evasion and 
thievery in high places.  At the same time, other parties are 
taking aim at parts of Tudor's parliamentary support.  The 
PSD, for example, continues to flirt with the notion of 
attracting PRM parliamentarians who were allocated seats when 
the National Union Bloc (BNS) offered its support to Tudor 
during the last electoral campaign.  Similarly, Cozmin Gusa, 
former PSD General Secretary and later, Basescu confidant, 
told us that he thought he could easily hive off a half dozen 
"progressive" PRM parliamentarians who could be convinced to 
support his newly formed National Initiative Party.  (Note: 
According to Gusa, the party is intended to be an Orthodox 
analogue to the Conservative Catholic parties of western 
Europe.  End Note)  The moral - the intentions and plotting 
of Tudor may count for much less than he believes.  Genuine 
alternatives and ambitious scavengers are likely to take a 
toll on his base support and parliamentary seating. 
 
11. (U) Amembassy Bucharest,s reporting telegrams are 
available on the Bucharest SIPRNET Website: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/bucharest. 
DELARE