somebody working abroad in a senior position. In 1984, he was promoted to Captain of the oil tanker Biruința, the largest ship of the then Romanian commercial fleet. In 1989, Băsescu moved to Belgium to head the Navrom Agency in Antwerp. The most controversial episode of his professional career began on 10 September 1981 in the French port Rouen, when a fire started around the Romanian tanker Argeș, then under the command of Traian Băsescu, affecting a large portion of the River Seine. The fire destroyed two tugs and six barges, and major disaster was avoided when 70 French firemen from Rouen, Gran-Couronne, Grand-Quevily, Canteleu and Moulineaux prevented the fire from reaching the nearby Shell refinery. According to an interview given by Traian Băsescu to the Romanian TV channel Prima TV on 23 June 1998 (and quoted by Magazin Nautic, the official publication of the Romanian Nautical Club), Băsescu admitted to having made alterations to the ship's installation before the French investigators were allowed to come on board, a thing that — in Băsescu's own words — made it impossible for the investigators to link the cause of the disaster to the Romanian ship. Earlier political career Băsescu was a member of the Communist Party before 1989. After the downfall of Communism, he claimed that he joined the PCR to promote his career in the merchant marines. In a letter published in Romanian newspapers, former president Emil Constantinescu alleged that Băsescu was in the second tier of the Communist Party leadership during the regime of former communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, but had managed to portray himself as anti-communist. During an interview Traian Băsescu admitted that before 1989 he smuggled jeans and other goods. A former communist official, a director of a firm that was receiving the goods transported by Traian Băsescu by ship, said on Antena 3 TV that without payment of a bribe Traian Băsescu refused to bring the goods in the country. Băsescu entered politics after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, as a member of the large National Salvation Front (FSN) party. In April 1991, he became Minister of Transport in Petre Roman's Cabinet, and continued to hold this position during Theodor Stolojan's "Cabinet of technocrats" between September 1991 – November 1992. In 1992, after the FSN split into two factions—the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PDSR, later PSD), led by Ion Iliescu, and the Democratic Party (PD), led