Why Oprea Was Removed

• Gabriel Oprea, associated with Mitrea"s friends • Trei Cocosi Restaurant - the link between Oprea and Cocos • Gabriel Oprea quits PSD Ilfov lead, too • Virgil Ardelean, the real reason for Oprea"s removal from the Interior Ministry, quits the lead of Ministry"s intelligence arm • The real stake of the scandal in PSD: who controls the party after the Congress this year?

Gabriel Oprea"s former business connections could explain most of the scandal which erupted within PSD and has led to Oprea"s removal from his office as Minister of Interior only three weeks after his appointment. Oprea seems to have been the victim of mounting tension between Mircea Geoana and Miron Mitrea. Oprea"s decision to appoint Virgil Ardelean as head of the Ministry of Interior"s intelligence division was perceived by Geoana as a revival of the "Cluj group" led by Ioan Rus, the former Minister of Interior in the Nastase Cabinet.

Ioan Rus was the one who augmented the powers of the Ministry of Interior"s intelligence unit in 2001, a time when it was run by Virgil Ardelean. An emergency ordinance passed during the first month of the Nastase Cabinet gave the Ministry of Interior"s intelligence unit powers similar to those of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI).

As the Cluj group and Miron Mitrea were gaining influence within the party after having secured control over the Ministry of Interior"s intelligence arm, Geoana became worried, especially considering the forthcoming PSD Congress, which would reconfirm him as president of the party or not. Geoana is well aware of the power of the groups run by Mitrea and Rus, for they are the ones who defeated Ion Iliescu at the Congress of 2005 and, surprisingly, made him president of PSD.

The Cluj group is the one who negotiated with Traian Basescu the formation of the PSD - PD-L Alliance, a project that took about two years, according to PSD Vice President Ilie Sarbu, also affiliated to Ioan Rus. The Cluj group also managed to have George Maior appointed as head of SRI in 2006, soon after the scandal surrounding Hayssam"s escape. With the appointment of Virgil Ardelean, Mircea Geoana was facing the risk of having no influence on either SRI or the Ministry of Interior"s intelligence unit, despite his recent appointment as Vice President of the Defence Council.

After the famous transcript in which Mitrea was voicing his anger with the recent loss of the office of Vice Speaker of the Senate and threatening to "finish" Geoana, a full-fledged war emerged between the two, each trying to undermine the other in the last two weeks. For now, Mitrea has managed to "finish" Gabriel Oprea, a high-profile figure in Geoana"s entourage. Who is next? The Congress is still months away...

The actual stake of this scandal is who is going to run PSD after the Congress and into the presidential elections this year.

• Gabriel Oprea, associated with Mitrea"s friends

Tension started mounting between Miron Mitrea and Mircea Geoana after the ignition of the Protan scandal. Mircea Geoana"s Robert Negoita, a real estate dealer, managed to close Protan in order to develop huge real estate business in the area and thus hurt Cristian Burci and the Crestin brothers, who control Protan and are on Mitrea"s side. Brothers Dumitru and Vasile Crestin have been partners with Gabriel Oprea in the companies Petrocris Exchange SRL and Oil Service International for a few years.

• Trei Cocosi Restaurant - the link between Oprea and Cocos

Gabriel Oprea and Dorin Cocos, Minister Elena Udrea"s husband, opened the Trei Cocosi Restaurant in Herastrau Park in 2000. The media alleged that the owners of Trei Cocosi had stricken gold in the real estate business during Traian Basescu"s term as Mayor, as the latter had blocked the restitution of a plot of land to the rightful owners. Thus, the company behind Trei Cocosi bought the land from the City for 100,000 EUR and can sell it today for over 4 million EUR. The role of then Mayor Basescu was to block the restitution of the land to the legal heirs until the sale to Trei Cocos was concluded.