BICHIR: “Ion Iliescu admitted he had backed up Romania’s liberal government, in a moment of sincerity which we can witness only when the former Romanian president is furious.”
“The current Executive would not have lasted this long without a support from the Social Democratic Party. We backed them up only to have stability.
This country would have gone to hell if we would have let them govern the fight between the Palaces (-Presidency and the Executive-)”, Iliescu said.
So here we have something every Romanian politician knew, which was intentionally ignored or questioned by some “analysts” and was said out loud by the one and only, El Lidero Maximo of PSD.
People looked with suspicion when, on February 7th 2008, Traian Basescu said: “Right now, PSD, through Iliescu, Hrebenciuc via Olteanu, Mircea Geoana, have a major influence over Romania’s Prime Minister, Calin Popescu Tariceanu. I say this with the full responsibility of a chief of state.”
They thought the statement was more like another episode of Basescu’s fight against his old enemy, whom he sees behind the 322 Parliament members. So here we have it. Basescu knew what he was talking about. Even so, Iliescu had a one of a kind reply for what Basescu said: “Basescu has an obsessive malady.”
The liberal – social democrat relations are quite old and come since 1991, when PNL-AT signed “The Book of Reform and Democracy”, along with the National Salvation Front (FSN), the Agriculture Democrat Party of Romania, and the Ecologic Movement. Back then, PNL was a part of the government, along with Theodor Stolojan. As the Democrat Party moved to the right side of the political scene, the Nationa Liberal and Social Democratic Parties grew closer.
One could see the ridiculous position Mircea Geoana, the leader of PSD, had when he and his party allies tried hard to bring down this government, while Iliescu, who was publicly accused of not following the party’s directions, was backing up the liberals.
It seems unfair from Iliescu to have named Geoana a “simpleton”. It’s known that a majority of PSD agreed to back up the current Executive, yet every member had his own reasons to do so.
Some did it in order to keep their positions, while others, like Adrian Nastase did it out of purely political reasond. Iliescu did it out of out of unadulterated malice, because of his “hell or stability” reasons he rehearsed so well during the revolution or when the miners attacked Bucharest.
The relationship between Ion Iliescu and Traian Basescu is still interesting, after the 2004 elections. Initially, Basescu kept himself from attacking the former president. He defended Iliescu and tried to bury the hatchet, by calling the former president a “responsible politician”, a fact which led to Cozmin Gusa’s depature. Back then, the target seemed to be Adrian Nastase.
Later on, Traian Basescu realized that the “old responsible man” was unhappy with the retirement and continued to make his political moves. Some of the moves were anti presidential.
Ion Iliescu is the reason we still have a liberal government. And there is no political strategy behind this..it’s all just to annoy President Basescu. Has Iliescu become a fan of Tariceanu. Or maybe Tariceanu is a fan of Iliescu?