Ioana Lupea: “The Romanian Prime Minister got what he wanted after a five minute TV appearance with Traian Basescu”.
What could a man like Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu do in order to become desired by an indecided partner, at the beginning of a political love affair, while being so poor spirited because of his public image? He flirts with some one else, a more popular and seductive „some one“, who might actually be the prom queen. The discreet talks between the Prime Minister and President Traian Basescu for naming Catalin Predoiu as Minister of Justice has intrigued and surprised the public oppinion.
They both wanted to end this on going dispute that would have brought them and Romania further image problems. All it took was a very well staged blink and a hand shake and the romanian politics seemed to move forward. Far from a great reconciliation, the agreement on Predoiu’s naming was a strategic move initiated by the Prime Minister, on which the President has cunningly agreed. Tariceanu’s infidelity was seen as an act of humiliation by the Social Democrat Party.
The social democrats felt rejected and betrayed by the TV complicity that ruined their chance for a happy partnership in administration with the democrats or the liberals.
The fact that Tariceanu and Basescu can still collaborate is signalled by the sudden harmony that took over Cotroceni Pallace and Victoria Pallace, after two months of political guerilla. Meantime, the Social Democrat leader, Mircea Geoana, fetched a sigh, Ion Iliescu was enraged and the radical group on the liberal camp has revised their position over a future liberal-socialist Executive.
Catalin Predoiu’s nomination is what one would call a sentimental blackmail. Fearing he might lose Traian Basescu’s contribution to the fall of the Executive, Mircea Geoana said at a recent party meeting: “We bring down the Executive and impose anticipate elections. We tell Basescu that we must find a sollution together”. Former Romanian President, Ion Iliescu and former Prime Minister Adrian Nastiest, called Calin Popescu Tariceanu upon a secret meeting, in order to decide a co-operative plan for the future elections and government. And liberal member Crin Antonescu, after years of clear refuse of co-operation with the party lead by ex-communist leader Ion Iliescu, said: “The National Liberal Party (PNL) must find allies any where in politics in order to protect the democratic regime in Romania”.
After a five minutes public meeting with Traian Basescu, Prime Minister Tariceanu obtained what he wanted so much: a clear leading position in negotiations with social democrat leaders and the defeat of the last resistance in his own pary. What will Basescu get? He will have one enemy, instead of two: the allied PSD-PNL.