CASE FOUR: "ONLY A MORON DOESN'T CHANGE HIS STANCE" Băsescu, coming to terms with being an illegitimate president; Antonescu - the new president

The teensy hope that Traian Băsescu had that he would succeed in tipping the balance of votes in his favor, to at least allow him to prevent the Referendum from being validated, so he could return to Cotroceni "almost legitimately" was crushed by the USL, (who were probably the ones to tell him that he's playing with the big boys now), which means that the suspended president changed his mind, and instead of asking his followers to come and vote, he is now asking them to stay home.

His only goal now is for the referendum to be invalidated and nothing more.

Once again present at B1TV, on the first day of the week, Traian Băsescu explained this gesture:

"There are far too many elements which indicate that the USL intends to cheat on this referendum. For me it will be impossible to check through the representatives of the PDL to check what will be happening there, which means there is the risk, if things don't improve in the coming days, that I will ask the PDL to not even have representatives in the voting precincts. There is also this risk: that they won't send their people over there and they will fully boycott the referendum, under the claim that it is not secure. It is very likely that I will not attend the referendum myself".

Yesterday, Vasile Blaga announced that the PDL will, however, be present in the voting precincts (perhaps only to be able to dispute the lawfulness of the organization of the Referendum).

The threat of fraud is real on both sides (there were thousands of complaints on the occasion of the local elections).

The rumor that the Special Telecommunication Service (STS) actually abandoned Băsescu and sided with Crin Antonescu (it's impossible to forget what Victor Ponta was saying in the elections of 2009: "I am referring to the system of stealing votes and committing fraud. We knew how to fight them on that turf. Their system was better"; and we also shouldn't ignore the recent statement made by Băsescu, about the fact that through the STS you can steal millions of votes).

Somewhere along the road, Băsescu broke.

"Only morons never change stance...", he said.

"...and people who stand by their principles", we would add.

The referendum will be boycotted by the PDL, which managed to awaken Ion Iliescu from his dogmatic snoozing, to grant us an enlightening, clichéd remark: "The boycotting of the referendum is an undemocratic gesture".

What an epiphany!

Good for him!

The inconsistence of Băsescu (or lack of principles, if you will, depending on what kind of politician you feel he is), opens up a Fourth Alternative, to complement the three I presented so far in the pages of BURSA (July 18th and July 23rd), because no one, (not even his opponents), imagined he would take the coward's way out (call it realism instead of cowardice, if you don't like the way it sounds).

The fourth alternative (two scenarios)

1. The quorum isn't met, the Referendum is invalidated, but the USL gets a crushing score, (about 65-70% in its favor, which could go as high as 95-98%, if the followers of the PDL do not attend, which is overwhelming); Antonescu leaves the Cotroceni palace triumphantly (no way he would leave politics, he will be designated as the sole candidate of the USL), Băsescu comes back through the back door - he is an illegitimate president (he won't be able to claim that he reached his objective of invalidating the referendum and thus claim he was "victorious" - it wouldn't stick!); he resigns on July 30-31st (upon the publication of the definitive results) and he manages the Presidency as an interim president (an interim to the interim he beat at "the green table"), until the presidential elections, which he schedules to take place at the same time as the elections for the parliament; he tries to train his successor - "the educated Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu" or "why not the young Mihai Neamţu" (let's be serious!); in this case, the time till autumn would be too short at any rate, this leads to the debacle of the PDL = Crin Antonescu becomes the legitimate president!; Victor Ponta returns as prime-minister; Băsescu returns to the PDL (Blaga quickly stands up to give him his seat as president of the party) and he gets ready to stay in the opposition, because "why not".

2. The quorum is met, Băsescu gets crushed with only 2-5%, he takes over from a reluctant Blaga, and once again starts toying with the idea of "why not", and starts playing in the opposition; Antonescu handles the presidency (but fully aware that he is somewhat illegitimate himself), until the simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections held in autumn, when he gets elected as legitimate president; meanwhile Ponta continues to serve as a prime-minister.

Both scenarios concern Crin Antonescu becoming the president of Romania in autumn.

Until then, kiss the economy and the government goodbye; 75% of the time of the government would be spent defending against the attacks of Băsescu.

Once Băsescu gets removed, the frictions inside the USL will start, as his elimination was the only reason which got the two parties it comprises to join forces.

As soon as there is nothing left to tie the social-democrats (PSD) to the liberals and the conservatives (PC), the infighting will begin, until the alliance disintegrates.

That is the true blow which Băsescu will deal to the USL, even if he does so involuntarily.

Of course, in my scenarios, I only took into account the persistence of the moron, who resigns when he is no longer legitimate.

But, Băsescu succeeds in being constant in his flip-flopping.

Which is absurd.

It's like claiming Galileo Galilei was just as moral as Giordano Bruno.

And Giordano Bruno was a moron...

A.Q. (Author's question):

If it is true that "what is legal is moral", like Băsescu claims, then why don't we all cheat on our wives?