The reform of the Romanian public administration and the necessary changes to the country’s constitution were some of the lessons given by President Traian Basescu in an unprecedented speech to the Social Democratic Youth, the youth branch of the main opposition party in Romania, PSD.

Basescu made an unexpected appearance at the summer school of the SDY on Friday to argue in favour of reforms for the whole Romanian population, beyond the usual clashes of political parties.

He argued that he opted to appear at the opposition’s event because he was “trying to produce the critical mass within the parties to lead to a solution” to current problems such as the administrative bureaucracy.

The appearance comes a week after Basescu said he considered the reform of local administration a failure of the current Democratic-Liberal government.