U.S. official criticizes Central European leaders for protecting corrupt officials, but PM says she’s not talking about Romania

Internal threats to democracy and freedom are just as worrying for states in Central Europe as Russia’s aggression in Ukraine or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s terrorism, said U.S. Assistant State Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland. “Across the region, the twin cancers of democratic backsliding and corruption are threatening the dream so many have worked for since 1989. And even as they reap the benefits of NATO and EU membership, we find leaders in the region who seem to have forgotten the values on which these institutions are based,” she said in a public speech. “So today I ask their leaders: How can you sleep under your NATO Article 5 blanket at night while pushing “illiberal democracy” by day; whipping up nationalism; restricting free press; or demonizing civil society! I ask the same of those who shield crooked officials from prosecution; bypass parliament when convenient; or cut dirty deals that increase their countries’ dependence on one source of energy despite their stated policy of diversification,” she added. She didn’t nominate any country in her statement, but some of her assertions may also apply to Romania, where there have been cases in recent years in which the Parliament refused to waive the immunity of several politicians who were being investigated in corruption cases thus blocking their prosecution. Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that Victoria Nuland was not referring to Romania in her speech but to Hungary. “I think that both President Barack Obama and Mrs. Assistant Secretary Nuland already have an extremely critical public position on what’s been happening in Hungary, our neighbor country. And I think that given that Mr. Orban (Viktor Orban, Hingary’s Prime Minister – e.n.) is in Romania today, in Bucharest if I’m not mistaking, you have the opportunity to ask him,” said Ponta when asked about local media to comment on Nuland’s speech. “I, as Prime Minister of Romania, don’t want or can’t publicly comment looking over the border at others.” editor@romania-insider.com