Elena Băsescu

Who is Elena Băsescu?

Elena Băsescu, sometimes referred to as EBA, is a Romanian politician, secretary general of the youth wing of Romania's Democratic Liberal Party, and a Member of the European Parliament. She is the youngest daughter of Traian Băsescu, the current President of Romania. She was formerly a model, and entered politics in 2007. She has a degree in economics.

Before standing for elections on her own, she was an intern of the MEP Monica Iacob Ridzi. Elena Băsescu stood as a candidate for the European Parliament in the 2009 election. She had sought to stand as a candidate for her father's Democratic Liberal Party, but was rejected by the party, in particular by intellectuals like Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, so she ran as an independent. Nonetheless, she "wasted no time in gathering 200,000 signatures for her candidacy". L'Express noted that her candidacy still caused some concern in the party, due to fears that she might draw votes away from it. Her initial popularity in opinion polls was high, but subsequently dropped to 5 or 6% shortly before the election. However 75% of the electorate did not vote in sign of protest, this being the lowest turnout in Romanian history for an election, and the percentage that voted for her was from a minority composed of the members of the party that was once ruled by her father Traian Băsescu, currently the President of Romania. During the campaign she caused some controversy after declaring herself in favor of legalizing marijuana use. Prior to her election journalists discovered that some members of the Democratic Liberal Party were instructed to vote for her in order to secure her election. She immediately rejoined the Democratic Liberal Party after she was elected to the European Parliament, and subsequently is also a member of the European People's Party. Due to Elena's support for marijuana legalization and allegations of nepotism, Hungarian MEP László Surján questioned her entry into the EPP group in an email sent to all EPP members.