Romania’s former President Traian Basescu announced on Friday that he would return to politics by joining the Popular Movement Party (PMP), a political party made of his diehard fans that supported him to the end of his mandate. Basescu was President for 10 years, from December 2004 until December 2014.

“The only solution I have is to return to politics, defend my two mandates, and defend myself from discrediting,” Basescu said in a press conference on Friday, October 9. He said that many local politicians and mass-media organizations were making efforts to discredit him and deny all the positive transformations that Romania has gone through during his 10-year rule, according to Hotnews.ro.

“Some institutions have waited for me to leave the seat at Cotroceni (the Presidential Palace – e.n.) to return to their old habits and start persecuting inconvenient politicians. I will remain an extremely inconvenient politician, and will never shut up,” Basescu said.

He added that during his rule as President he only managed to bring down the system, but not defeat it. He accused some of the state’s institutions of “brutally breaking human rights” and of letting themselves used as harassment instruments.

“The system must understand that democracy is not optional,” Basescu concluded.

The former President, who advocated for the freedom of justice from political influence during his presidential mandate, turned into one of the critics of the current justice system, and especially of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA).

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editor@romania-insider.com