Traian Basescu owed his win in the 2004 presidential elections to a radical mutation in the electorateâs way to perceive politicians. The younger, dynamic, capitalist oriented voters slowly replaced the elder, conservative, socialism conditioned ones. So the final vote favored the risk takers, like Basescu was. He made a positive and lasting impression with his audacity, sudden moves, and clear-cut, final decisions.
One has to admit that Basescu fallowed into the footsteps of Corneliu Vadim Tudor, president of the Greater Romania Party, in opposition, and is emulated by Gigi Becali, president of the New Generation Party. The people following the speech Sunday of Conservative Party president Dan Voiculescu, at the National Council about to decide if the party would leave the ruling coalition, might have had the same feeling: that Voiculescu too was imitating Basescu.
During the quarter of an hour speech none could tell if Voiculescu was pleading for leaving or staying in government. At one point one was ready to swear the conservatives would leave the center-right ruling coalition, and at the next point one was ready to swear the opposite. It was very much like in those old action movies, in which one was ready to kill the other, but instead of pulling the trigger one started a long-winding monologue debating on the pros and cons of doing it. In the end the party took a vote on a resolution which recommended it stayed in government; and it voted for it.
The resolution attaches some strings on its coalition partners, stating the conservatives would continue to support them provided in six months they comply with a list of requirements.
The public perception, however, is that the Conservative Party will continue to stay in power not because its partners complied with its demands, but in spite of the fact that they insulted the party repeatedly.