The first meeting between Dan Voiculescu and Traian Basescu took place 14 years ago, when the latter was running for the City Hall. The meeting was set up by George Copos and held in a hotel in the Capital.
"I met with a servile man, who began asking me, as humble as possible, to overlook a wrong expression to my address. He was interested in knowing what he had to do so that the media trust I founded would provide intense media coverage for him, portraying him in a positive way, to not criticize him - in other words, to be obedient to him. I replied that I cannot do that and there is nothing he should do because, as a candidate, he will definitely attract the media’s attention. I remember that he did call me a few times more, with different requirements for his appearances on TV. He asked me nicely, shamefully nice ", Dan Voiculescu says.
A second meeting took place in 2004, a few days after he won the presidency of Romania Traian Basescu. The discussion took place in the Senate office of Dan Voiculescu and Băsescu wanted to put his people in the leadership positions of both Houses of Parliament. He was refused, because back then the Romanian Humanist Party had an alliance with the PSD and supported Nicolae Vacaroiu and Adrian Nastase.
"The firm rejection of this plea determined Basescu to threaten me bluntly:" You'll be sorry!", He stroke his fist against the table and left the office," Dan Voiculescu writes.
The most famous meeting is the one held at Grivco where Basescu publicly admitted that he went to "ask for favors". The entire episode is widely reported in the book "The Liberal Social Union - the idea that brought Traian Basescu to his knees." Then another meeting mediated by George Copos occurred, at the end of 2004, at the Cotroceni Palace. Traian Băsescu was desperate that he did not have majority in parliament and could not form a steady government.
"After an hour of discussion, we agreed that PUR should take over three portfolios in the Tariceanu government: George Copos – deputy PM , Codruţ Seres - Minister of Economy and Trade and Sorin Vicol - Minister Delegate for coordinating the inspection authorities (...). again, at this meeting, Traian Basescu acted cordial, friendly, " Dan Voiculescu says.
UDMR’s presence in the government coalition brought about a new meeting opportunity between Traian Basescu and Dan Voiculescu. That's because the president wanted to remove UDMR from the Government in order to exclude Călin Popescu Tăriceanu from the office of prime minister.
"He told me exactly this: Professor, you were born in '46, so we are about the same age. Stop supporting a hopeless man . Tariceanu has got no future," Dan Voiculescu said.
Dan Voiculescu says that after he refused this proposal, Traian Basescu changed the discussion. The president founder of the Conservative Party says that following these meetings that Basescu won nothing from there appeared numerous public attacks, the persecution press trust, abusive controls, the CNSAS dossier and finally the Telepathy case file.