Teodor Melescanu's speeches about "the third way" and "the third republic" silently conceal the black holes in the ApR (the Alliance for Romania) structures. A strange mixture of melancholy and sarcasm mark the epitaph uttered by Mugurel Vintila, Adrian Balanescu (the ApR National Council head and former vice-president) and Catalin Croitoru (the former party's secretary and a very important trade union leader). They say that ApR was a good idea spoiled by Melescanu to justify their love of the former days and the enmity of today. There is no mention of the reason why they discovered this so late when they have fallen out of the "el lider maximo's favor". Everybody could perceive that after all, as the analysts have been commenting it long before the crisis within the party appeared. There is no doubt that ApR is an extremely personalized party with a precarious structure, an unstable electorate and a confusing message. The ruling body within the party is no longer operating but it never did in the 1997 either. Melescanu usually makes informal decisions asking only the people close to him for advice. He changes his friends and gives up those whom he owns something. The inconclusive message the resigning people talk about is an ApR old ailment. The fantasy stories about the necessity of founding "the third republic" have nothing to do with an electoral program. The fact that the electorate gave it up as easy as they joined it again would not surprise us at all. ApR was more an idea than a party and Melescanu-more like a promise than a true leader. Now it seems that someone else embodies what ApR and Melescanu represented last year. And the poll ratings speak up loud and clear. PNL and Theodor Stolojan have largely taken from the Apr electorate. Especially the ideas that were "borrowed" by the Liberals (the necessity of reforming the political system, the myth of the go