The Romanian Foreign Minister, Mr Adrian Severin, resigned yesterday after an investigation failed to substantiate his allegations that local politicians and journalists were working as spies for foreign governments. "The resignation is the sole solution which I can resort to," he said, adding that he stood by his accusations.
The Christian Democrat Prime Minister, Mr Victor Ciorbea, said he had accepted Mr Severin's resignation from his year-old coalition cabinet. Earlier this month Mr Ciorbea reshuffled the cabinet to revive flagging reforms.
Mr Severin's decision followed a meeting of the Supreme Defence Council on Monday, chaired by President Emil Constantinescu, which heard reports from the SRI and SIE intelligence bodies on Mr Severin's potentially damaging allegations made in a newspaper interview three months ago. Mr Severin had claimed he had evidence that two or three party leaders and two or three prominent newspaper editors were working for foreign intelligence services.
Yesterday he refused to retract his allegations. "I am convinced that what I said at the time is the pure truth. It was my duty as a politician to draw public attention to the existence of people who, with or without their knowledge, are not serving the interests of our country," he said.
The allegations made by Mr Severin, who is deputy leader of the Social Democrats, the second-largest of the four coalition allies, had strained relations with the Christian Democrats.
A statement released by the presidency cleared Mr Severin of breaking a post-communist law, which bans officials from making public disclosures that could threaten the country's security interests.
The report drawn up by SRI, Romania's leading counterespionage agency, and SIE, its foreign intelligence counterpart, had "confirmed a series of documents communicated by Severin", the presidential statement said.
But it added that in "the specific cases raised . . . they had found no elements to prove that the respective public personalities were being used by foreign secret services".
Mr Severin said he would resume his seat in parliament, which he said would allow him to wage on his campaign "to expose those who did not work for Romania's interests". Mr Ciorbea has said that he was backing the Social Democrats' proposal to appoint Mr Andrei Plesu, a distinguished writer, as foreign minister and expected him to be sworn in next month.
Meanwhile yesterday, Mr Constantinescu spoke of the plight of thousands of abandoned and homeless children, urging his citizens to take responsibility for their welfare.
In a live address on state television, he quoted grim statistics on rising infant mortality, abandoned babies, child abuse and illiteracy.