Is "Costea" affair a scandal designed with an electoral purpose? After the information disclosed in the last few weeks, the Costea affair seems to have "softened" these days. The French magistrates left without fully clearing the situation or asking for our public opinion's permission. Moreover, the Social Democrats and Ion Iliescu chose to fight while ApR (the Alliance for Romania) seems to be very determined to bury the affair. Everything looks like an order, despite the fact that the Romanian legal system is the one that opened the affair. This is the fiancé in love syndrome: he has already made the choice and even if he confronts the common sense people's contempt round, he can hardly draw back. The facts Ion Iliescu is charged side by side with his team are indisputable. It's a long series of frauds and illegalities we are talking about. Among some of them there are those concerning the electoral poster fraud or the illegal electoral sponsorship made by foreign persons along with the pretty clear suggested money laundering affair and extortion from public funds involving millions of dollars. All these can speak for themselves. Those who keep saying that the mineral oil trade is a simple electoral affair may be right. If this scandal had appeared a year ago, it would have been buried under Ion Iliescu's accusations that it was nothing else than a diversion of the current power to hide God knows what. If it was just a trick played by the current power on the Social Democrats' expense, a simple discrediting campaign, we should take into account the Social Democrats' negative campaign in 1996. But there was nothing to blame, other than the accusations of bringing the monarchy and the rough capitalism back. Nevertheless, as the political forces are ready to denounce each other in court, this thing can't have but a good effect for a democracy. The fact shows the democ