AP: 12,000 Romanians rally in support of suspended President Basescu

CONSTANTA, Romania: Some 12,000 Romanians rallied in the old port of this Black Sea city on Sunday, voicing support for suspended President Traian Basescu, who faces an impeachment referendum later this month.

"Basescu, president!" shouted the supporters, who had traveled to the demonstration from eight counties.

Addressing lawmakers, who voted 322-108 to suspend Basescu last month on grounds that he violated the constitution, the demonstrators yelled "Thieves!"

Earlier Sunday, some 2,000 Romanians gathered in the Spanish capital, Madrid, to support Basescu, who is Romania's most popular politician. An estimated 1 million Romanians live and work in Spain.

"I refused to make a compromise with the political class," Basescu told his supporters in Constanta.

"If I had made a compromise, I would have compromised Romania for many years ahead," he said, denying he had violated the constitution. The Constitutional Court ruled that he had not violated the constitution, but the ruling was not binding and Parliament still voted to suspend him.

Basescu said that Parliament had voted to suspend him because he made an alliance with the United States and Western Europe, rather than Russia. He is openly critical of Russia, and has said Europe should not rely on Russia for its energy supplies. Romania joined the EU on Jan. 1.

Romanians are set to vote May 19 in a referendum to decide whether Basescu should be impeached.

Parliament passed legislation Thursday lowering the threshhold needed for a successful impeachment referendum to require support from only a majority of votes cast. Previously, more than half of the country's electorate would have had to support a motion for impeachment for it to have effect — a near impossibility in this country where ballot turnouts are typically low.

The change was still not expected to lead to Basescu's impeachment, analysts said, given his wide popularity.

Basescu again criticized what he said was corruption among the political class.

"For many years I had suspected corruption in all the parties which now formed an alliance to suspend the president, putting its own economic interests and desire for power above party and the public interest," he said.