Corruption scandal shakes government

The mayor of Cluj, Sorin Apostu, was taken into custody together with his wife on Thursday on charges of putting together an elaborate system of bribery. The liberal democratic governing party PDL, of which Apostu is a member, has been rocked by the affair, the daily Gândul writes: "Sorin Apostu's arrest comes just a week after that of Radu Bica, deputy head of Cluj's district council. The investigators found 10,000 euros in bribe money that Bica had stashed away in Sofia. Both cases are connection not only because they took place within the same municipal administration and the same network of corruption, but also because they both stem from the same party: the PDL. Apostu is leader and Bica deputy leader of the governing party in Cluj. Until recently the party structure in Cluj was among the strongest the party had in the country, achieving consistently better election results than elsewhere. ... But now the party has really messed things up in this district and aroused suspicions that reach all the way to Bucharest."

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