300 Hektar Land for 1 Million €
26 Nov 13
Romania Parliament Queries Loan to President’s Daughter
The President’s many foes in parliament say they intend to set up a commission to look into his family’s financial affairs.
Bucharest
Romania’s parliament is to take a good look at a mortgage that the state-run CEC Bank granted a relative of President Traian Basescu’s.
The Liberal Party, PNL, a junior member of the government, on Monday said it was joining the Social Democrats in supporting the setting up a commission of inquiry.
“We are backing the Social Democrats over the inquiry into the businesses of the Basescu family”, Crin Antonescu, speaker of the Senate and head of the party, said.
The Social Democrats are the main party in the centre-left coalition government led by Victor Ponta.
In mid-November, Ioana Basescu, the President’s eldest daughter, admitted having received a loan of one million euro to buy some 300 hectares of land in southern Romania.
She added that the loan had been contracted for a period of 30 years, and that she had already paid two of the installments.
President Basescu later said he had convinced his daughter to buy the land because he himself wanted to be a farmer, adding that Ioana, who works as a notary, was the only family member eligible for a mortgage.
But parliament says it wants to investigate if Basescu used undue influence to facilitate the loan.
“The question is: could an ordinary Romanian citizen, with an income and financial situation similar to Ioana Basescu’s … have obtained such a loan from the CEC under the exact same conditions?” Dan Sova, a leader of the ruling coalition, said.
Media reports claim the the loan was far bigger than any normal customer could have obtained. They also note that the request was approved within a week and the money transferred in less than a month.
Analysts say the affair comes at a bad moment for Basescu. “It has stopped him in his tracks precisely when he could have presented himself as the leader of a new strong centre-right movement opposed to the ruling coalition,” journalist Ioana Ene noted…
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/romania-s-president-business-to-be-investigated