TODAY'S TOP STORIES The Apprentice Sorcerer of Romanian Politics

A medieval Romanian proverb goes something like this: "when the noblemen fight, the peasants shiver with fear." In other words, the scandals between "the fat cats" are damaging to "the little mice," that is, to the common people. Presently, the scandals between "the fat cats" - Romania's politicians - have rea-ched a peak higher than any other peak scandals have reached in past electoral campaigns. Strangely, the electoral confrontation going on now has gained so much in proportion because of a mere coincidence. The electoral strategies of the two main political combatants - The Social Democrat Party (P.S.D.) on the one hand, and The P.N.L. - P.D. Alliance (National Liberal Party - Democrat Party) on the other - have clashed in the area where consequences are the least controllable: international legitimacy.

From the very early days of the P.S.D. administration, this party's political strategy has been oriented towards European and North-Atlantic integration. It was the strategic objective of The Nastase Government to make an essential turn in the history of Romania: the turn to the West. Such a strategic choice came with no other alternative. As the developed West started to expand towards the less developed Eastern Europe, Romania had to choose between becoming the poor relative of the modern European world, or being an "exotic' island of poverty and insecurity in a Western ocean. The latter option could only be a temporary one, too. The new European "empire' headquartered in the west of the continent was not being built around The Mediterranean Sea, as it had been before, but all the way from The Atlantic to The Caspian Sea. The few "pockets' that this expansion was leaving behind were mere postponements - like the former Yugoslav space - or special cases - like Switzerland or Norway. For Romania, to become a pocket like that without having the special advantages that Switzerland or Norway had would have been a disaster.

Consequently, The Nastase Government decided to channel its efforts towards European and North-Atlantic integration. All the more because fast and radical changes were taking place around Romania... In order to achieve this objective, The Government needed international legitimacy. They needed to rid themselves of the negative labels stuck on the former P.D.S.R. and the previous governments. And they did rid themselves of such labels by replacing the party leadership, terminating the alliance with The Greater Romania Party (P.R.M.), becoming a government regarded as pro-West and especially by starting to apply the kind of reform measures that had been postponed for ten years - including macro-stabilization, privatization, institutional reform specific to the rule of law and, last but not least, the deinstitutionalization of abandoned children. The Government did not do all this fast and well, because this is not Hollywood, but they did accomplish much and have started doing even more. Three circumstances helped them. First: President Iliescu's increasing credibility in the West. Second: the West's need for allies after the terrorist attack of September 11th. Third: a radical change in the views of The E.U., which decided that Romania must be integrated alongside the rest of Southeastern Europe.

The Nastase Government also had a number of problems, generated by their own structures and internal conflicts, as well as by the political inconsistency of certain high-rank-ing figures. Some of these problems have been solved, some of them have not. But, in the end, after many steps ahead, and enough steps backward, things seemed to be headed in the right direction, until The Government clashed with the reverse strategy of The P.N.L. - P.D. Alliance. The Alliance, which came into being rather late, decided that their best chance to win back the power they had lost in the year 2000 elections was to have the West reject the P.S.D. Domestically, The Alliance has a very weak position, all the more because it has had to accept P.R.M.'s domination in Parliament. This is something The Alliance has still not rid itself of, and, in addition, Traian Basescu's and Theodor Stolojan's conflicting opinions regarding the potential cooperation with Vadim have recently caused a new argument between the two parties forming The Alliance, as the matter of accepting Vadim's votes for a no-confidence motion filed by The Alliance could not be settled amicably.

Nevertheless, The Alliance is not doing too badly at an international level. While P.D.'s situation within The Socialist International group is not exactly great, P.N.L. has maintained good relations with European Liberal parties, and has also benefited from the fact that The European Parliament rapporteur on Romania, the already famous Baroness Nicholson, is a member of the British Liberals. Without much ado, Stolojan went to Brussels and - mass media say - "snitched' on the Romanian administration. The leader of the Liberal Group in The European Parliament mentioned Stolojan's complaints in a press statement, while the Liberal rapporteur of The E.P. amended the report she had just concluded.

As for the Christian Democrat / People's group, several Romanian parties, including The National Christian Democrat Peasant Party (P.N.T.C.D.) and The People's Alliance (A.P.) did their own lobbying in Brussels. On top of all this came the reactions of the civically and politically involved N.G.O.s, of Pro Democratia, and of the Gypsy organizations, plus the political offensive of the mass media, who are interested in getting international support to rise to the status of the fourth power in the State.

Eventually, what came out of all this was that Western politicians came to the rescue of their Romanian allies. To Western politicians, Romania's accession is not exactly an objective or a stake in their game. The leader of the European Liberals cynically said that, if Romania was not going to join The E.U. in 2007, he was not going to lose any sleep over it. And, since making a press statement or casting a vote in The European Parliament are not exactly big efforts to make, he did both and thus helped The P.N.L. - P.D. Alliance, who wants to win the forth-coming elections by convincing voters that Europeans do not like P.S.D. In their turn, The Alliance relayed the criticism (which they had suggested themselves in the first place) from the European parliamentarians back to Romania and demanded that The Government resign - the dream of any opposition party. This "relaying system' worked and Romania and all of its people saw themselves caught in a maze of interests in which the 2.5 billion USD contract for The Brasov - Bors Highway blended with U.S. - E.U. tension, with the international adoptions scandal and with piles of other things of greater or lesser importance. Like one of the opposition leaders said unofficially - the opposition does include a few politicians with good faith - "it's obvious that they are determined to either find or invent a problem with Romania." Much like the apprentice sorcerer, the "democratic' opposition has triggered a chain reaction about Romania's accession that both P.S.D. and The Alliance can hardly keep under control.