POLITICS - December 22nd 2004 President Traian Basescu took over the chief of the state mandate yesterday. Ion Iliescu left the presidential palace, saying that he left as inheritance to his successor the "Cotroceni spirit".
By MONICA IORDACHE
CEREMONY. Traian Basescu became the chief of the state, surveying and saluting the Guard of Honour The Guard of Honour arranges in a line on the alley of the main entrance of the Cotroceni Palace half an hour before the beginning of the ceremony. The personnel are making the final arrangements and the late journalists are being hurried by the GPS (the Guard and Protect Service). "Come on! Faster! The President is going to get here before you!", says a GPS officer. The new chief of the state appears. Traian Basescu starts over from an end of the alley, bows down in front of the national flag, surveys the Guard of Honour, salutes it and walks towards the entrance of the Palace. On the stairs, Ion Iliescu waits for him. He is wearing his ready-to-go overcoat. Around the former President one can see all his counsellors: Rodica Stanoiu, Corina Cretu, Octavian Stireanu, and some of Basescuâs counsellors: Theodor Stolojan, Renatte Weber, Claudiu Saftoiu. Iliescu attentively watches Basescuâs every step, swallows nervously, and, only when Basescu is quite close, starts to smile at him. The Presidencyâs employees gathered around the windows, and the cleaning ladies push each other in order to watch the ceremony through a barred window from the basement.
COLLAR. Iliescu, Basescu and all the former and present counsellors enter the palace, without the journalists being able to follow them. Inside, the ceremony consists in the handing over of a collar President Emil Constantinescu initiated and which is to be passed over from one President to another. The two remain in a prolonged tÃşte-Ã -tÃşte, a
