IOANA LUPEA: "The perverse effect of the anti-system speach could be a disgusted rejection of all that smells of politics".
The results of the presidential speach on politicians as "dirty water on a glass" will be revealed in the elections. Unexpectedly, Traian basescu himself and the Democrat Liberal Party are risking to be victims of the anti-system rhetoric. The drop in confidence of the presidential institution and Traian Basescu, like the popularity of "independents" Sorin Oprescu and Irina Schrotter can be the results of the suspicions on politics and politicians, set by the head of the state in the voters minds. "We have a political class that can't pull Romania towards progress", said Traian Basescu before the referendum for the uninominal vote, lost by the beneficiaries absence. Only that the president, with all his qualities, and his party are part of the detested political class stigmatized as overfulfilled, corrupt and out of the people's reality. The risk is that all that smells of "politics" to be rejected with disgust by the voters, even by those who declared themselves as reform promoters.
Paradoxically, but Sorin Oprescu's popularity could be an effect of the perfectionist strategy of the head of state, that assumed the complete realisation of the ideal to eradicate the political corruption and politiciens vassal to goups with mafia interests. The main quality of the former PSD member, manipulated from the shadows by Ion Iliescu, is his independent status in the competition for the Capital's City Hall. Oprescu poses as a victim of the party's movements, that is, in the actual understanding, associated with politics. Irina Schrotter's succes at Iasi, that before the candidateship's withdrawal had, according to polls, 20% from the voters support, has his roots in the same generalized contempt towards the political solutions. The grow of confidence in Mugur Isarescu, BNR governor, second in the prefferences, after Traian Basescu, with 28%, can be a symptom of political saturation. Technocrat had always been seen in Romania as an alternative to the political class, that is why Theodor Stolojan is so likeable.
The contempt towards politic was not created by Traian Basescu. The sudden and unexplainable enrichment of some local officials, parliamentaries or ministers made the people to feel double-crossed. To the corruption from the transition period was added the voters deception on their living standard. Romania had since 2007, after four years of economy growth, a poverty rate compared only to the former USSR countries. Traian Basescu confirmed only the general opinion that politicians are corrupts, incompentents and out-dated and has continously raised their distrust rate. On a short term, the satisfaction of the public beliefs brought him some perks: reconfirmation as president, with an owerwhelming result, at the referendum for presidentail ban initialized by the PSD-PNL-PC-UDMR coalition. His violent spech on the political class could cost the PDL representaives a number procents, in the local and general elections. The inefficient administration of society's ideals could be proved, in practice, suicidal. Experts say it.