The cohabitation around CFR is cool!

Whoever thinks that Gruia Stoica should have been carrying around over 200 million Euros in his pocket, so he can afford to take CFR Marfă off the shelf, is wrong; him not having the money is to be expected, because this kind of acquisition is usually done using a syndicated loan.

However, what seems like rather curious is that he is unable to come up with the money after the auction is over, which can easily be inferred from the fact that he tried to get the "Directorate-General for Competition" of the European Commission to cancel the call for tenders, to avoid losing the money he put up as collateral.

Concurrently, he tried to ally himself with the Americans of OmniTRAX, who were his competitors at the acquisition of CFR Marfă, and who disputed the call for bids (in the event of a success, the result would be what is called "front-running", in stock market lingo).

Băsescu is just running around in circles, getting even at everybody:

At Gruia Stoica, because he used the PNL to get him in the call for tenders, only so that he can later sit at the table with the PSD;

At Victor Ponta, to prevent him from avoiding responsibility for the (expected) failure of the privatization of CFR (in the end, Ponta would be left with two huge cannonballs around his ankles, dragging him down - CFR on one leg, Oltchim on the other);

At Crin Antonescu, by postponing the appointment of Ovidiu Silaghi, as Minister of Transports (who would then be in charge of CFR Marfă), by reopening the case of prosecutor George Bălan (together with advisor Marcel Sâmpetru and the head of the Ilfov General Police Inspectorate, Mihai Vlad, charged with attempted blackmailing by disclosing secret information).

Ponta's attempt to pass the hot potato to Băsescu, by sending the privatization of CFR Marfă to the Romanian Supreme Defense Council (CSAT) (which is led by the president), was sent back with a backhand by Bogdan Oprea, the presidential spokesperson, who said that approving privatization contracts does not fall within the responsibilities of the CSAT.

Traian Băsescu seems to be mostly looking to take away Ponta's strong points as a presidential candidate (he doesn't actually care about Crin Antonescu), but it bears noting that in actuality, it isn't even that hard, because Ponta stumbles just fine on his own, without anybody trying to trip him up.

Meanwhile, the IMF is watching us, and the president and the prime minister are kicking each other in the shins under the table, smiling nicely at Lady EU, who asked them to cohabitate.