Big Brother in the Social Democratic Party (SDP)

The leaders of SDP are to have today the first of the meetings in which to talk about the restructuring of the party and the cabinet reshuffling. In other words, they will discuss about who remains and who quits as vice president of SDP. The number of the vice number will be drastically reduced.

Today’s meeting of the Permanent Delegation of SDP was to be a rough one. Why? The party’s president, Adrian Nastase, is going to show to the other leading members of SDP the scheme of the party’s restructuring. In the new structure the number of the vice presidents will be drastically reduced, so there will be a tough competition for these jobs. Nastase seems to be the one to take the final decision. After the meeting with President Ion Iliescu, Nastase let fall that he will choose who stays and who leaves.

CONFIGURATION. In the last day of June, after the Permanent Delegation meeting, Nastase showed his plan of restructuring the Permanent Delegation. This could be one way. The SDP said that the new Permanent Delegation should have 5 to 7 vice presidents, one representative of the ministerial group, and one of the parliamentary group. He also said then that the vice presidents which are also ministers should choose one of the functions.

Adrian Nastase - is the president of SDP and has publicly announced he won’t resign in order to restructure the board of SDP and to make the cabinet reshuffling.

Octav Cozmanca - could remain the executive president, a function which Nastase considers to be useful. He prefers Iliescu and that’s why Nastase could try taking him out. Cozmanca might be held responsible for the failure in the local elections, since he has coordinated them at central level.

Mircea Geoana - he is to stay for sure in the Government and will leave the function of vice-president. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which he leads, is directly involved in the EU integration process. He has already announced his choice.

Viorel Hrebenciuc - after being the family man of Iliescu for a long period of time, he fell into the disgrace of the President. He resigned as the leader of SDP Bacau and he will probably be taken out of the party at central level too. Though he wants the job of the parliament representative, he has no chance of wining it in favor of Nicolae Vacaroiu.

Serban Mihailescu - is Nastase’s confidential clerk, but he might be sacrificed because his public image isn’t quite a good one. His name was mentioned in two corruption scandals in which there were involved governmental counselors, when he was the General Secretary of the Government.

Miron Mitrea - though he is a traditional adversary for Nastase, we don’t think he will be taken out. He is one of the most powerful members of the party. The subsidiaries he took care of during the elections obtained good results. We are quite confident he will keep his job as the Minister of Transports which means he will be the Governments representative for the Permanent Delegation.

Sorin Oprescu - though he is the man of Iliescu, might keep his job as vice president. Taking into account that Dan Ioan Popescu won’t be one of the vice presidents, Oprescu is to represent the Bucharest SDP organization at central level.

Ioan Mircea Pascu - has to choose from being the Defense Minster and vice president of SDP. The ministry isn’t such a big stake, due to the Romanian integration in NATO, so he will probably choose the vice president job.

Victor Ponta - has already announced he will give up the job as Minister of the Community Agreement Implementation and that he wants to be a vice president. He has his chances because he is the man of Nastase. However he has a lot of adversaries in the Permanent Delegation, so future is uncertain.

Dan Ioan Popescu - is in the same situation as Hrebenciuc. He quit as president of SDP Bucharest. He is to be eliminated from the group of vice presidents for sure, and he will remain the Minister of Industry.

Hildegard Puwak - will certainly be dismissed from its job of vice president. She isn’t a very important member of the party and she has been involved in the corruption scandal "Leonardo", this also being the reason of its past dismissal as minister. She is to remain the president of the women Organization in SDP.

Ioan Rus - is close to Nastase, though there are rumors saying their relation turned bad. He has a lot of chances of remaining a vice president. Though he failed to win the City Hall of Cluj, he brought SDP into the first places in this county. Nastase doesn’t consider him a looser, and he has been praised by Cozmanca also.

Ion Solcanu - is regarded as the man of Iliescu and it is hard to believe he will be one of the remaining vice presidents.

Doru Ioan Taracila - has resigned as the president of SDP Calarasi, and he is to submit his resignation as vice president of SDP today.

Nicolae Vacaroiu - is the man of Iliescu, and he is to remain the vice president of SDP for sure, him being the Parliament’s representative for the Permanent Delegation. He is for now the president of the Senate, being the next but one politically powerful person in Romania.

Dan Matei Agathon - might loose his job as General Secretary in favor of Cozmanca, if the function of executive president is to be abrogated. Otherwise, his future doesn’t look so good. He is blamed for the weak results obtained by SDP in Botosani.

THE LESS IMPORTANT ONES ARE TO DISAPPEAR

The vice presidents to be dismissed for sure are Alexandru Athanasiu, the president of the Deputies Chamber, Valer Dorneanu, Acsinte Gaspar - judge at the Constitutional Court, Georgiu Gingaras, Ion Sasu, Mihai Tanasescu si Ilie Sarbu, which are to remain ministers of Finances and Agriculture, respectively. Athanasiu will still be president of the National Council, but he won’t be a member of the Permanent Delegation anymore.