President Basescu's suspension has its roots in the conflict bursts between himself and prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, on May 19, 2005, when the PM publicly announced that he won't resign, as promised.

The scheduled early elections, designed to bring a comfortable majority for the Liberal - Democrat alliance, were no longer an issue, so that the two parties continued to relay on the support of parliamentarians from the Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR) and the Conservative Party.

Basescu blamed businessman Dinu Patriciu, owner of the Petromidia oil company, for Tariceanu's sudden change of mind. Patriciu's problems in Justice had begun shortly before this incident.

2005:

# May 27, 2005 - Dinu Patriciu is taken into custody for investigations on the way Petromidia (the refinery included in his oil business) was privatized.

# June 10, 2005 - Former Romania president Ion Iliescu is officially charged by the Military Prosecution Office for the miners' bully in Bucharest, June 13-15, 1990.

# July 7, 2005 - Calin Popescu Tariceanu announces his resignation, along with the other members of the cabinet, accusing the Constitutional Court's decision to reject some articles required for Justice reforms.

# July 19, 2005 - Calin Popescu Tariceanu announces he won't resign, considering that "the floods demand a brave leader, who doesn't abandon his people in rough times"

# July 21, 2005 - Traian Basescu declares that he still believes in early elections and that "the floods caused the loss of the chance for a strong government, able to make the Alliance's promises come true"

At the same time, liberal leader Theodor Stolojan returns to the political stage (after retiring from the presidential race in favor of Basescu, accusing health problems). First rumors about Liberal - Social Democrats* negotiations appear. (*Social Democrats ruled Romania 1990 to 1996 and 2000 to 2004. The party is widely seen as covering up for former Communist top activists)

# August 9, 2005 - Dinu Patriciu declares that Basescu's statements on "groups of interests" are rather delusions from a "conspiracy theory".

# August 11, 2005 - Threatened with the sacking of its Government members, the Conservative Party support the replacement of the speaker in the two parliamentarian chambers.

# August 25, 2005 - During the Democrats' summer school classes, Calin Popescu Tariceanu says that the early elections are a closed subject.

# September 26, 2005 - Traian Basescu admits that the momentum for early elections is lost and the earliest elections may be scheduled in 2007.

# October 31, 2005 - Presidential counselor Elena Udrea accuses Dinu Patriciu of coordinating the attacks targeting president Traian Basescu. She claims that Patriciu's campaign led to her resignation. Udrea also leaves the Liberal Party.

# November 27, 2005 - Liberal leader Theodor Stolojan publicly demands Liberals to cease their attacks against Basescu and to protect the Liberal - Democrat Alliance and the new fiscal taxation system, with its innovative 16% flat tax.

2006

# January 19, 2006 - A criminal investigation is opened against Conservative vice prime minister, accused of money laundering and embezzlement.

# February 13, 2006 - Elena Udrea joins the Democrat Party.

# April 5, 2006 - Traian Basescu declares in a live TV show that he regrets naming Calin Popescu Tariceanu as prime minister and accuses him of "forgetting about the Alliance's targets and getting closer to groups of interests with an oil scent"

# June 12, 2006 - Democrats quit naming a vice prime minister, a position they might have claimed due to the Alliance's protocols. The move is designed to force a re-definition of the cabinet,

# June 15, 2006 - CNSAS, the body enabled to study the archives left by the Communist political police (Securitate) decides that Conservative Party head, Dan Voiculescu, conducted political police activities.

# August 2, 2006 - Dinu Patriciu admits that some of the companies he owns sponsored the Social Democrat electoral campaign in 2004 (Social Democrats were the main competitors against Patriciu's Liberals and their Democrat allies).

# September 2, 2006 - Mona Musca and Ioan Ghise are thrown out of the Liberal party after being exposed as Securitate collaborators.

# September 8, 2006 - Dinu Patriciu is sent to court in a file referring to the affairs in Libya and the manipulation of the capital market.

# September 25, 2006 - Traian Basescu names Social Democrat George Cristian Maior as head of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and Claudiu Saftoiu as head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE).

# September 30, 2006 - Raluca Turcan and Cristian Boureanu are thrown out of the Liberal Party for public criticism against the party leaders. Dinu Patriciu is simply "warned" for his financing the political opponents.

# October 18, 2006 - Liberal vice president Valeriu Stoica also expelled from the party.

# December 3, 2006 - Conservatives leave the governing deal and join Opposition.

# December 5, 2006 - General Prosecution Office opens the criminal investigation against the Conservative Economy Minister, Codrut Seres, accused of unveiling classified data about strategic privatization to an espionage network.

# December 7, 2006 - Expelled members of the Liberal Party form the Liberal - Democrat Party.

# December 18, 2006 - Traian Basescu officially condemns the Communist Regime.

2007

# January 11, 2007 - The first "pink note" scandal: Elena Udrea claims in a TV show that Calin Popescu Tariceanu sent a hand-written note to president Basescu, asking him to involve in the criminal investigation against Dinu Patriciu.

# January 17, 2007 - Traian Basescu makes the "pink note" public.

# January 18, 2007 - Conservative leader Dan Voiculescu launches the second "pink note" scandal: Basescu's note on a report about the situation of aluminum producer ALRO Slatina is "Please analyze the letter and decide according to the Government's interests and, if possible, the national economy interests"

# January 21, 2007 - Calin Popescu Tariceanu accuses Traian Basescu of trying to impose a personal authority regime, following the Belarus model.

# February 12, 2007 - Social Democrats open the procedures for suspending president Basescu.

# February 13, 2007 - The simple motion against Justice Minister Monica, submitted by Social Democrats, is approved by the Senate majority.

# April 1, 2007 - PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu announces Government reshuffle with Liberals and UDMR representatives only.

# April 13, 2007 - Traian Basescu in an interview for Cotidianul: “I wished for a fast modernization of the state, but the prime minister is dependent on the oligarchs' influence. There is no way out of this problem”.

# April 19, 2007 - 322 parliamentarians vote in favor of Basescu's suspension.