Who Gets The Tip?

The elections were won. Everybody won - PSD won, because they came out first, and PDL won, because they ran by themselves (and not in a coalition like PSD), and PC won, because, if they had not made a coalition with PSD, they would have been left out, and PNL won, because they got more votes than ever and can now afford to play games with the Socialists and the Democrats, and UDMR won, because they did not lose.

Gigi and Vadim did not make it past the threshold, but, even so, we can say that elections were won. By Decency. Nevertheless, if you add the 3.4% of PRM and the 2.4% of PNG, you realize that the grand total of votes cast for scandalmongers is constant and a bit above the threshold for accessing Parliament.

Similarly (but reversed), if you add the 33% of PDL with the 18.7% of PNL, the resulting 51.7% is more than the DA Alliance would ever have scored. Hence the conclusion that a split into two can lead to quite different effects, from one case to the next.

Although everyone is laughing at opinion poll makers saying they have made quite a mess, they actually did not do anything wrong. Sociologists will always say "plus/minus 3%." And this was the case, too, the only difference being that the exit poll made by CCSB was "plus" for PSD and "minus" for PDL. Hence a "plus" 6% for PSD, to PDL"s disadvantage, when, in fact, they both scored practically the same. Perfect! It"s within the customary error margin. The only problem is that, this time, they announced a "plus/minus 1%" error margin. What got into them?

The next step would be Tariceanu"s auction. Who"s going to bid more, Geoana or Boc (Basescu)?

Crin Antonescu is feeling so comfortably positioned between PSD and PDL, that he went as far as saying that PNL could impose a Liberal prime minister. It"s the same as telling to PDL and PSD: "We are very aware that you can"t manage it without us, so please be very aware that it"s going to cost you quite a pretty penny."

The Democrats are saying that PNL is anyway governing according to a programme that they defined together in the first place, so it would be natural to make peace and form the parliamentary majority together (the remnants from PRM and PNG are even wondering if they couldn"t do that by themselves, without UDMR).

What the Democrats are saying would be something like: "We"re going to accept what you want, as long as you don"t insist on Tariceanu being the prime minister. After all, we have a common ruling programme, and that"s what matters, not the man who applies it." And Tariceanu would say: "No, we have our own crisis management programme. If you are going to accept that, we can talk. Don"t think you can discard us."

Some came to the conclusion that Tariceanu would be removed from the picture through a promotion, possibly to the office of Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. The problem is that his party colleague, Hubert Stefan Thuma, a businessman from Ilfov County, managed to score 18 votes more than Tariceanu, the president of the party, BEC reports indicated. Figure that! According to the reports released yesterday at noon. Tariceanu did not even make it to Parliament. Then how could he become Speaker of the Lower Chamber?! Well, if he doesn"t come to an agreement with Hubert, Calin will just go into the negotiation with the Democrats and say: "I don"t know, I don"t care, you just find a solution for me!"

On the left side of the arena, Adrian Nastase "Reloaded" is whispering on TV that PSD could assemble two teams of negotiators trying to undermine the Liberals" confidence in their position as circumstantial blackmailers. The idea doesn"t really hold water. It would only if PDL found a way to make a deal with PSD. However, the Democrats keep saying that any negotiation with PSD is out of question.

So the tactics (if we can call it that) announced by Geoana remains valid: "we got most of the votes, Romania is a democracy, PSD has the European right to form the new Government." It may seem that he is speaking to the wall, but, who knows, maybe PSD is willing to do just about anything to come back to power, and that includes accepting Tariceanu as prime minister.

Anyway, PDSD did have some Liberals in the Government at one point. And there is also the "Patriciu factor," Tariceanu"s patron and a known supporter of a PNL - PSD alliance.

This would be the time for an important observation. After all, what are politicians negotiating now? Are they negotiating which of them has the best solution for a better life in Romania? Or which one is the most able to further develop the country? Let"s get real. No. As we all know, they are negotiating something else; offices, sinecures, positions. No one cares about us.

Politicians want power. Power is a purpose in itself. You have power, you feel good. You feel great. But this is not all. You are sitting on a nice armchair, you are a minister, you are the head of an agency, so? You can serve. You serve. Whom do you serve? The citizens? Maybe... sometimes. Sporadically. Without talent, without stamina, sometimes without competence. You have nothing in particular against the citizens, but it"s complicated to serve them. Sometimes, when their petty problems turn out deeply rooted, it"s downright disgusting.

But it"s quite simple to serve someone who"s building a whole new building next to the Cathedral. Or someone who hasn"t paid taxes in seven years. Or someone who wants to get a State contract.

The number of political customers is growing steadily. Businesspeople get connected to parties, because political power nullifies their gravitational field. The biggest of them will sponsor all parties, just like buying all the tickets to the lottery. The negotiations that are taking place now between the political parties are just a clash for a tip, between servants.

The masters are waiting in the back. The money is almost the same, no matter who wins.