Beleaguered Romanian president finds solace in peaceful Sibiu

Romania Letter: When Romania's president, Traian Basescu, sought an Easter escape from the looming threat of impeachment, he did not head for the popular Prahova Valley north of Bucharest, nor the familiar Black Sea coast where he was born and grew up to become a ship's captain.

Instead, Basescu took his family further afield, about 300km (186 miles) northwest of the capital, to a landscape and a town more redolent of Bavaria than the Balkan hubbub of Bucharest.

Sibiu was one of several towns founded by Germans who settled in Transylvania in the 12th and 13th centuries, at the behest of Hungarian rulers who sought their expertise in mining and commerce and their robust help in defending the southeastern edge of Budapest's dominions.

The town shared the tumultuous fortunes of Transylvania - overrun by the Mongol hordes in 1241, fought over by Habsburg and Ottoman leaders in the 16th and 17th centuries - before finally becoming part of unified, modern Romania after the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed in 1918.

Now, in the year Romania joined the EU, Sibiu is a European Capital of Culture, an honour it shares with Luxembourg, from where some of Sibiu's medieval founders hailed.

In a town that is now 95 per cent Romanian, it is a surprise to find that the mayor is one Klaus Johannis, a scion of one of the relatively few ethnic-German families that stayed here after the bloody 1989 revolution that toppled communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Locals seem proud of a mayor who embodies Sibiu's tradition of tolerance and, along with its German minority, the town is still home to small Hungarian and Roma communities.

From the old town walls, Sibiu's suburbs appear to melt into green fields that roll away towards the white peaks of Romania's highest mountains, the Fagaras, only 20km (12 miles) distant. They form a barrier between Transylvania and Wallachia, a region that was never fully subdued by the Habsburgs or Hungarians but was fought over for centuries by local princes and later ruled by the Turks and Russians.

Transylvanians often look down on their neighbours in Wallachia, seeing themselves as disciplined, hard-working and cultured in contrast to the volatile, lazy and untrustworthy southerners.

Transylvania is Europe, its residents tell you, while Wallachia is the Balkans, where chaos and corruption reign. Southern Romanians, of course, offer a different take, and depict Transylvanians as dour, slow-witted facsimiles of their German and Hungarian neighbours.

In Sibiu, and other historic Transylvanian towns like Brasov and Sighisoara, the visitor certainly feels closer to central Europe than in Bucharest, a city of cacophonous street life and seething traffic.

No surprise then, that Basescu fled turbulent Bucharest for gentler Sibiu to escape a bitter battle with the prime minister, Calin Tariceanu, a battle which has wrecked Romania's coalition government and prompted the president's suspension by parliament for alleged abuse of office.

The restored squares and cobbled streets of Sibiu's heart feel very far from the vast boulevards and shabby tower blocks that are Ceausescu's legacy to Bucharest, and Basescu seemed soothed as he spent a Transylvanian Easter weekend with his wife and two daughters.

"Sibiu is most dear to me," he said during his visit. "I like the atmosphere and the town. I am always more at peace with myself following these visits."

Ever the political scrapper, however, Basescu couldn't resist a cheeky dig at the prime minister as he spoke to worshippers at Sibiu's main Orthodox church on Easter Sunday.

"I know that there are three pillars of life," he intoned. "Being at peace with God, being at peace with yourself, and also at peace with your fellow men - but it is hard to be at peace with some people."

Most Romanians like Basescu's wisecracks, and his easy, populist charm marks him out from the many stolid ex-communists and crass nouveaux riches who are prominent in politics and business.

But opponents say they are sick of his interference in affairs of state, court cases and intelligence matters, and parliament suspended him last week, prompting the EU to express fears that vital reforms - particularly in fighting graft - may now be delayed.

While Sibiu, as a growing regional cultural and financial centre, shows Europe some of what is best about modern Romania, the country's squabbling politicians are undermining belief at home and abroad that the old, corruption-riddled days are over.

Basescu promised to return to Sibiu for Pentecost in late May, soon after a national vote on whether to impeach him. The president is likely to survive that ballot, but the dark clouds on Romania's political horizon will surely still be visible beyond Sibiu's optimistic glow.