What Marga and Lupu did during the PNTCD Congress represents something contrary to a stage effect: being very transparent to the press, they managed to get the vote of the sovereign instance in order to change the old rules of the game and eliminate the former PNTCD leaders. The purpose of our article is to find an answer to several questions: could what happened in PNTCD (Peasants' National Christian Democratic Party) be comapared to a stage effect? why didn't this change occur earlier? has PNTCD any valuable members which can help the party recover? what is the place of this party on the Romanian political scene? It would be a mistake to think that the spectacular way in which Andrei Marga, helped by Vasile Lupu and Catalin Chirita, took over the power in PNTCD, represents a manner of acting specific to this party. On the contrary, the congress which took place during the period 19-21 January provoked a radical change within PNTCD, by annihilating the former organizational culture and replacing it with a potentially democratic one. However detailed and well-prepared the scenario of a stage effect might have been, we cannot help noticing three important elements. Firstly, this hypothetical scenario met most of the expectations of the delegates to the Congress, who offered it a democratic legitimacy. Secondly, however "obscure" its preparations might have been, the debates proved to be totally transparent and anyone could have the floor. Thirdly, it was the behavior of the team Dudu Ionescu-Ion Diaconescu-Ion Caramitru which could have suggested the idea of a previous arrangement, both by the fact that its members paid no attention to the desires of the participants and the existence of a series of arguments according to which the modification of the party's statute could have "rubbed out" the party from the Romanian political life. All these elements lead to the con