Bucharest administration conflict reaches PSD

PSD (Social Democrat Party) Bucharest organisation leader Dan Ioan Popescu yesterday accused the party’s general secretary Cozmin Gusa of having “fuelled and favoured” the conflict between the PSD Bucharest councillors and Mayor Traian Basescu. Cozmin Gusa replies by saying he has no idea what Dan Ioan Popescu is talking about, but he understands these “outbursts,” because his colleague has a lot of difficult problems on his mind.
This is not the first time the two PSD leaders have clashed. Popescu’s statement, a surprising thing to do for a political leader known for his cool, is an answer to a statement Cozmin Gusa made on Monday. Gusa had said the PSD leaders were displeased with the political co-ordination of the Bucharest organisation.
Cozmin Gusa also said after PSD’s Permanent Delegation that day, that the Bucharest branch had no “objective reply”, politically speaking, to Traian Basescu’s signature collection campaign to support the EIB agreement.
“A conflict between Basescu and the councillors is not efficient at all, yet it was fuelled. The right strategy is to address the issues of the people in Bucharest; Cozmin Gusa himself cannot prove this policy of the PSD Bucharest organisation is wrong, if considering he was among those that fuelled and favoured this conflictive state,” Dan Ioan Popescu, who is also Industry and Resources minister yesterday specified.
According to Popescu, “Gusa is very young, has very little political experience and sports certain journalistic touches he displays under certain circumstances.” The PSD Bucharest head thus referred to Gusa’s managerial position with a central daily prior to his appointment as PSD general secretary.
The PSD Bucharest leader was displeased with the way Gusa talked about the ruling party’s branch in the Capital during the latest PSD Permanent Delegation and reminded him he was also a member of this organisation.
Several hours later, Gusa provided an answer.
“As regards the conflict between the PSD councillors and Mayor Basescu, which my colleague Dan Ioan Popescu alleges I have fuelled, I don’t understand what he is talking about, as he was not clear enough. Still, I have always stood by the PSD Bucharest organisation,” Cozmin Gusa says.
Gusa added he did not know whether he was necessarily very young, which, by the way, he did not find to be a fault,” but he knew for certain that Dan Ioan Popescu was “very nervous.”
“This can be explained in a way, because, both as PSD Bucharest organisation leader and as Industry and Resources minister, he has many difficult problems to solve. It is, therefore, only natural that a man should have such outbursts,” Gusa’s statement shows. (mirela.luca@zf.ro)