Mudding Johannis

Grieving over the looming loss of their mayor, Klaus Johannis, as the cruel fate was about to snatch him from Sibiu and throw him into the political swamps of Bucharest, the people of Sibiu gained new hope around five o"clock in the afternoon: President Traian Basescu appeared on television and said that he did not want technocrats for a government, but, on the contrary, the political parties should form a new government, a political government, as simple technocrats could not possibly bear the responsibility of the difficulties in the near future, nor should they become some sort of a shield for the politicians to hide behind.

Well, this means that Basescu, too, is against having Johannis for a prime minister.

So the people of Sibiu could rejoice.

But not all of them were so sad that Johannis might leave Sibiu.

One of them is Teodor Ancuta, the President of the Sibiu Exchange.

"Thirty-eight employees. That"s what the City Hall had in 1989," Ancuta said. "Now, it"s five hundred of them!"

"But he rebuilt the city centre!" I replied.

"At what cost? Did anybody look into that?"

"Traian Basescu decorated him last year!"

"They are not on good terms anymore"

"But there was a rumour last December that Johannis had joined PD-L!"

"No... maybe the rumour existed, but they fell out as PD-L recruited the mayor of Medias, Daniel Tellman, who was part of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania. The poor fellow died a few days ago. He was forty-nine."

"I take it that Basescu thought highly of Johannis."

"He did. All of them did. Geoana and Antonescu visited him, too. There is a saying... two Romanians are one Romanian too many. Maybe the German can bring unity..."

"He is a good manager..."

"Yes... When the City Council is in session, you wonder where all the Saxons have gone... They are in that meeting."

"Obviously you don"t like the mayor..."

"Have you found out about the forgeries, the lawsuits? Yes, maybe he is prime minister material after all..."

To be honest, I was sorry about this candidate for the "city hall" of Romania. I, too, started feeling better around six o"clock in the evening, when Mircea Geoana, Crin Antonescu and the others announced, after talks with Traian Basescu, that they continued to support Klaus Johannis... that a political government would require complicated negotiations, which could last well after the presidential elections and cause further suspicions about the fairness of the elections.

Of course, Geoana did not have a choice, but act out his intellectual capabilities, which have made him famous.

After saying that Johannis was an independent, he also explained that a prime minister without a minimum political stature could not possibly represent us in the negotiations with the international financial organisations.

It"s alright, we understand.