The social-democratic mayor of Constanta (South-East Romania) who paraded in a Nazi costume, Radu Mazare, told Romanian news agency Mediafax that he did not want to offend the Israeli community by dressing up as a WWII German officer. He claims to have a good relationship with the Israeli community. He said he was inspired by the movie "Walkiria Operation", which depicted a German officer "wanting to save the country from a crazy dictator" by fighting against the Nazi regime.

"By no means did I intend to harm and I do not agree with the war and I didn't want to offend the Jews or the Israeli community, with which I'm in a very good relationship and which possibly focused most of their investments in Romania in Constanta," Radu Mazare declared.

"I was inspired by the movie 'Walkiria Operation', featuring Tom Cruise, depicting a German officer who wants to save the country from a crazy dictator. He fought against the regime, he did not support it. Nevertheless, it was only a fashion catwalk. It shouldn't have received such attention, but in Romania we're generally inquisitors," the mayor from Constanta concluded.