Rats Flee Skipper"s Ship

• Democrat-Liberals beg to differ

After National Liberal Party (PNL) President Crin Antonescu invited runaway Liberals to return "home" from the parties they had strayed to, especially the Democrat-Liberal Party (PD-L), the first results begin to appear in the local organisations.

Increasingly more local PNL leaders are saying that they have been receiving phone calls from former party colleagues since Crin Antonescu said on television that PNL"s door was only open until 6 December and not a minute after the second round of the presidential elections, which, in Antonescu"s view, would be won by Mircea Geoana, who would designate Klaus Johannis as Prime Minister of a Government backed by PNL, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and possibly the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR).

"Many people - Members of Parliament, Mayors, people from PD-L, most of whom fled PNL when they thought that the Tariceanu Government was going to collapse and Mr. Traian Basescu would be eternal - many people are calling our colleagues to test the waters," Crin Atonescu said, quoted by Agerpres. "Whoever wants to return to PNL must do it now. After Traian Basescu"s downfall, we will not accept anyone back, because we are not the kind of party you abandon in hardship and join in prosperity," Antonescu added.

PNL Secretary General Radu Stroe confirmed for BURSA that former Liberal politicians, especially those who had left for PD-L, wanted to come back to PNL.

"It is true that members of our party have been contacted by current members of the PD-L, who expressed their wish to come back to the party. It is a period of testing the waters and I cannot give you names, because we need to offer some degree of protection to those who have expressed their intention to return. We are talking about mayors, deputy mayors and even Members of Parliament, who used to be in our party and are now primarily in the PD-L. Those who have made this decision to return to the party will announce it publicly," Stroe told BURSA.

Some examples come from Prahova County, where the president of the local organisation of the PNL, Adrian Semcu (who is also Vice Chairman of the County Council) said he had received phone calls from PD-L mayors in the county, including mayors from Prahova Valley, who were interested in coming back to the party.

Similarly, in Botosani County, the vice president of the local organisation of the PNL, Gheorghe Sorescu, announced that PNL members had already voiced willingness to take back those who had left after being "lured away," but only until 6 December.

• Positions, power and money...

As a matter of fact, the Democrat-Liberals - and not only - have good reasons to wish to return to PNL as the possible election of Mircea Geoana as President and the subsequent nomination of Klaus Johannis as Prime Minister would trigger the great rush of the Liberals and Social Democrats for public offices.

Some of the members of the local organisations of the PNL have already thought about it and are now conditioning their prospective cooperation with the Social Democrats in a future Government on obtaining key positions in the leadership.

In Gorj County, the president of the local organisation of the PNL, Dan Ilie Morega, commented that "we will probably accept to form a Government with the PSD, but only if the Gorj County Organisation obtains certain offices in the leadership of the County." He referred to the Prefect"s Office, the management of the Hidroelectrica branch in Targu Jiu and the management of the two energy production facilities.

In Buzau County, the president of the local organisation of the PNL, Senator Cristi Bagiu, pointed out that the Liberals wanted one of the offices of Vice Chairman of the County Council, because the party had the largest number of mayors in the county.

In turn, the Democrat-Liberals claim to have no idea about the plans of their local leaders and even some of their MPs to return to some imaginary cornucopia in PNL.

Valeriu Tabara MP (PD-L) commented for BURSA: "We have no knowledge of anything of this sort and I do not think that such movements will take place before 6 December, in either direction." He also commented that such turn of events would be "foolish."

Now...