Traian Basescu wordt nieuwe president van Roemenië (en)

The mayor of Bucharest Traian Basescu has won a very tight race in Sunday's presidential elections in Romania.

The centre-right politician, who used to be a sailor in his youth, won 51.23% of the votes against 48.77% of his opponent, the erstwhile Prime Minister Adrian Nastase.

After a count of 98.76% of votes on Monday (13 December), Adrian Nastase conceded defeat and congratulated Mr Basescu.

With no party winning a clear majority in the parliamentary elections on 28 November, the negotiations to form a coalition government can now begin.

The Social Democrats (PSD) won 189 of the 469 seats, while Mr Basescu's Justice and Truth Alliance party (DA) won 161 seats. The PSD (former communists) badly needed Mr Nastase to win in order to form a majority government.

Controversy over EU issues

The new Romanian authorities will face a tough time ahead of the country's accession to the EU in 2007.

Foreign minister Mircea Geoana just managed to conclude EU pre-accession talks on 8 December but also agreed a number of very difficult conditions.

The achievement was criticised by Traian Basescu who stated that as president, he would attempt to re-negotiate two difficult chapters: energy and competition.

In order to close the competition chapter, Romania had to agree to implement additional measures, mainly during the course of 2005.

Should it fail to do so, the country's EU accession could be delayed by one year. The safeguard clause, which permits the delay, could be put into effect if 18 out of 25 member state vote in favour of it. Bulgaria has a similar clause, but this one requires the unanimity of EU member states.

Mr Basescu criticised this and claimed the former authorities did not sufficiently explain the consequences of accepting these conditions for the safeguard clause to the Romanian people.

He added that, for example, citizens do not know that Romania's accession can be more easily put on hold than Bulgaria.