Presidential adviser: President Basescu to join the Popular Movement NGO, not the political party, after ending mandate

Romanian president Traian Basescu will join the new Popular Movement foundation after ending his presidential mandate in 2014, but he will not be a member of the party which recently spinned off the foundation project. The announcement was recently made by presidential adviser Cristian Hriţuc, who is a founding member of the Popular Movement – Miscarea Populara Foundation. “We will not be joining that party, we will not have functions, we will not be in conflict of interest and everything that means emulation in that party will come from the personality that is Traian Basescu and from our much smaller personalities,” Hriţuc explained. The Popular Movement is an NGO started earlier this year by a group of the Romanian president's counselors. The NGO recently turned into right party under the same name. The decision was made after a poll on the NGOs website showed that that only 11 percent of the respondents wanted the new movement to stay a foundation, while the rest saw it becoming a party. Presidential adviser Sebastian Lăzăroiu (in picture) recently said the new party will be open to welcoming people from other parties, including from the Democratic Liberal Party PDL, which, in his opinion, might cease to exist in 2016. The former PDL vice-president Sever Voinescu, who said he would not be involved in creating the new party, also said many of those unhappy with the PDL leadership will join Miscarea Populara for Traian Basescu – the country's president, who is, commentators say, behind the new project. Thus the PDL could pay a high price for having cut ties with president Traian Basescu. Basescu, himself a former PDL chief before taking the presidential seat, recently supported candidate Elena Udrea in the PDL leadership vote, but when the incumbent party president Lucian Blaga won another mandate, Basescu said he'd part ways with PDL. Soon after, the new Miscarea Populara was created. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: presidency.ro)