"I am accused of treachery and spying with the help of an international crime network. It's all completely unfounded," Zsolt Nagy, the Romanian government's IT and telecommunications minister, told hvg.hu. After the affair broke last November, Traian Basescu, the Romanian prime minister, on Monday gave his approval for a formal criminal investigation of the allegations against Nagy. He passed this request to the Minister of Justice, who has passed the relevant documents to the country's Supreme Court.

Zsolt Nagy stands accused along with several other government officials, including Codrut Seres, the former economics minister, of passing classified Economics Ministry documents to a Bulgarian businessmen who used the material to help his employer, the financial adviser Credit Suisse First Boston. It is claimed that the IT minister checked whether Romania's security services were listening in on the Bulgarian businessman's conversations.

"I have never asked for or received information about prominent people," said Zsolt Nagy, who has already proven to a five-member presidential committee that he did not have the authority as telecommunications minister to order phone taps, which can only be carried out by the security services. "As a civilian and especially as a Hungarian, I have no influence in this area," he added.

"The question is why it took three months for the president to authorise a criminal investigation against me. And why did they choose to do it this week, at a time when the political crisis appears to be peeking, when Parliament is holding a confidence vote against President Basescu, when the government no longer enjoys a parliamentary majority, and when the foreign minister has just resigned," Nagy asked.

Traian Basescu held talks with all parliamentary parties this week to discuss the country's serious political crisis - but he did not succeed in finding a compromise. The Liberals claim there is no crisis, while the opposition Social Democrats claim that Romania is paralysed politically. The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) argues that, since the government now forms a minority in the legislature, it has only two options. One is to gain a parliamentary majority, the other is to call early election.

"It is quite clear to me that the president wants to create a majority which includes the RMDSZ but not his own party," Nagy says. "In three months, the presidential committee has found neither proof nor any plausible motivation for why I would have carried out this crime. He is basing the accusation against me on other people's telephone conversations," he claims.

"This scandal has wounded my credibility both as a minister and as a private individual, since I'm innocent. I'd like things to become clear as soon as possible, although I know that it could drag on for a long time," he said, adding that Basescu could have dismissed him from ministerial office at any time, and was still able to do so.

"I'm not worried about being investigated, and I don't need to exercise my parliamentary immunity. I can't even decide what interests lurk in the background to this affair. But I have confidence in the justice system, I know it will distinguish between fabrications and the truth," the young minister wrote in his blog.

"The RMDSZ has stood by me. Bela Marko, leader of the party, announced in a joint press conference that he condemned Traian Basescu's behaviour and insisted that the accusations were politically motivated," he said, adding that he was relieved to enjoy Marko's support both as minister and as a European Parliament nominee.
The fact that the president launched the investigation the day before initiating a dialogue with the political parties, including the RMDSZ, may suggest that Basescu wants to force the RMDSZ into following the presidential line in major political issues, Bela Marko argues.

Calin Popescu Tariceanu, the Romanian prime minister, said: "To me, it looks like blackmail when the president's office adopts an ambiguous position with regard to Zsolt Nagy's possible guilt, making the minister's position uncertain." The prime minister said the minister's uncertain position was unnatural, and had only come about because the the presidential committee investigating the allegations had not come up with a clear view.

Kulcsár Hajnal