WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT! There"s actually a game of chess being played on the political board!

• The opening

(Context: two months before the presidential elections - neither Băsescu, nor Geoană like having to come before voters as adversaries, while being partners in the government).

1. Minister Dan Nica alleges electoral fraud is in the works.

2. Emil Boc dismisses Nica.

3. Mircea Geoană withdraws his ministers from the Government.

• Sacrificing the rook

4. PNL files a no-confidence motion.

5. PSD, UDMR and the minorities in the Parliament, in agreement with PNL, vote in favor of the motion.

6. PNL proposes Klaus Johannis as prime-minister.

7. Johannis is backed by the remaining political parties which are part of the "transparent majority" and which brought down the Boc government, threatening to go to the Constitutional Court if Băsescu does not appoint their chosen candidate as Prime-Minister.

8. Using the fact that the "transparent majority" is not formally based on any legal document (and thus has no grounds to appeal to the Constitutional Court), Băsescu appoints Lucian Croitoru as Prime-Minister.

9. The parties in the "transparent majority" go on the defensive - they reunite the two houses of the parliament and their leaders officially reaffirm their support for Klaus Johannis, but give up on bringing the case to the Constitutional Court (it was too late, Croitoru had already been appointed).

10. Băsescu threatens that in December, there will be no more money left for investments, wages, or for pensions, if the "transparent majority" does not validate Croitoru as Prime-minister, to allow Romania to draw the EU-IMF loan.

11. The "transparent majority" reaffirms its backing of Klaus Johannis, and Geoană accuses Traian Băsescu of blackmail.

12. Băsescu threatens that, if Croitoru is not validated, he will keep the Boc Cabinet in place until after the presidential elections, (as the Constitution allows him to do so).

13. Băsescu summons the mission of the IMF back (which had postponed its visit until after the creation of the new government) and gets a positive answer.

• Game gets interrupted; the move in the envelope arrives

(I told you could skip directly to this part. Welcome to those who did!)

14. The visit of the IMF will coincide with the visit of the World Bank mission (initially, an EU mission was supposed to come to Bucharest as well); both are scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday; also scheduled for tomorrow is the hearing of the ministers in the Croitoru cabinet; the vote for the appointment of the Croitoru cabinet is scheduled one week from now, as the missions of the international financial institutions have already been waiting for some time and will have to wait another four or five days; in case the Croitoru government fails (which is the most likely alternative, considering the behavior of the "transparent majority" so far), the Parliament will give a strong signal to the World Bank and the IMF that they"re a bunch of clowns and they"ve got no business coming here.

Which can be considered the end of the pre-election chess game.

Winner: Traian Băsescu.

Checkmate in 14 moves.

The elections themselves will simply be another game in the tournament. But that game will be played under the terms set by this game, which Traian Băsescu won.

A few observations:

A. The "transparent majority" loses because of its haste, lack of attention to details and lack of foresight (most of the time it fails to foresee the second move, against an opponent - Traian Băsescu - that can see at least three moves ahead);

B. One of the mistakes that the "transparent majority" makes is always hiding behind the fact that it is a "majority"; in reality, we"re talking about that parliamentary majority whose image was badly tarnished when it tried to suspend president Traian Băsescu (and given the view of a major part of the electorate, it doesn"t matter that it"s not the same Parliament who did it); as the voters stood behind Băsescu, a sizeable part of the public considers that this parliamentary majority no longer represents them, and sees the current conflict as a new "putsch by the parliament".

C. This spectacular game of political chess is captivating; the only problem is that this is not a "video-game"; this is "for real".

No matter how good a player Băsescu is as a president, he shouldn"t be playing "with us".

There"s the rub!