REFUSING TO SHAKE HIS HAND  Maior left Pop with his hand in the air

The exploitation of Roşia Montană continues to shed light on the moves taking place on the Romanian political and social scene. Many of the games for the presidential elections and for the leadership of some of the most important institutions of the state are being played around this topic.

The Parliamentary Commission for the audit of the activity of the Romanian Intelligence Service, led by PSD deputy Georgian Pop, yesterday heard the head of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), George Maior, on the issue of the Roşia Montană project.

The statements of the two officials on this topic were however overshadowed by the apparently insignificant gesture of George Maior, at the end of the "debriefing" with the press. The head of the SRI left Georgian Pop with his hand hanging in the air when Pop held it out for a handshake.

The gesture of George Maior, caught by TV cameras, is surprising, given his diplomatic education, as well as his subordination to the Parliament, namely to the Commission for the Audit of the SRI led by Georgian Pop.

According to some political sources, though, the gesture of director George Maior isn't that surprising, as Georgian Pop has been looking to take the place of George Maior as the head of the SRI, and Pop has the support of several influential figures in Romania, as well as in the USA.

Our sources told us that after he stopped being considered for the position of Romanian ambassador in the US, George Maior began feeling increasingly threatened by the intentions of Georgian Pop to take over his position as head of the SRI.

Georgian Pop declined to comment on the gesture of George Maior.

• Scenarios concerning the "extremist factions" involved in the protests in the University Square

"The Romanian Intelligence Service has fulfilled its duties in preventing the extremist type elements that sought to subvert the protests against the exploitation of Roşia Montană", said Georgian Pop yesterday.

He said: "If you look at the history of this project, a certain interest in legitimate public protests has existed since its very beginning. The role of the SRI is to, according to its legal competences, inform the legal beneficiaries on whether there is a tendency or an actual occurrence of these protests being subverted for other purposes".

The president of the parliamentary commissions of the SRI also said: "The role of an intelligence service is to prevent the occurrence or the materialization of such risks. We, in the Commission, have wanted to check whether this kind of attempts have existed and whether the SRI did its job on the prevention side, and the answer is that from that point of view, the SRI has acted effectively. I have seen no legitimate protests being twisted by extremist elements towards a negative outcome for the Romanian society".

Sources from the market told us that the extremist movements which Georgian Pop yesterday mentioned concern two different scenarios.

According to their statements, there is a group of politicians in the PSD such as Sebastian Ghiţă and Ilie Sârbu who would use the pretext of the protests against Roşia Montană to exclude Crin Antonescu and the PNL from the government as well as from the race for the presidential elections. This scenario seems to be taking shape, given the fact that amid the scandal on the issue of the Roşia Montană mining operation, the alliance between the two governing parties splintered, and the notion of the PSD running with its own candidate for the presidential elections has begun taking shape, something which would have been unconceivable one year ago.

On the other hand, our sources told us about a possible scenario, which concerns protecting the interests of another group of politicians, closer to president Traian Băsescu. According to our sources, people from the entourage of Traian Băsescu are using the protests against the exploitation of Roşia Montană for two purposes: destabilizing the current government and creating a new political party using some of the leaders of the street protests.

As a matter of fact, two days ago, the president was saying: "The protest in the University Square is a pure one, the one at Roşia Montană is the one that is manufactured. I could start a referendum on the Roşia Montană topic, but we do not have the guarantee that 50% of the citizens that have the right to vote would show up. Roşia Montană is a subject of interest for the security services. According to my information, Soros isn't sending the NGOs out in the street. If a clean political party came out of the street protesters, it would be a good thing for the political class".

Aside from these two scenarios, there are some voices that claim that in actuality, all of the protests taking place this autumn, are following the 2012 pattern, when, for the most part, the same protesters have succeeded in leading to the downfall of the Boc government.