Nastase and Iliescu Are Out of Step

Thursday evening, in a live television show, we had the opportunity to see an open confrontation between [former president] Ion Iliescu and [former PM] Adrian Nastase. Iliescu criticized some of the decisions made by Nastase_s Social Democrat Executive, while the latter tried to explain the reasons behind his actions.

The first wrong move Nastase made, according to Iliescu, was to name Cozmin Gusa as general secretary of the Social Democrat Party. Gusa was not a member of the party and to put him in a top position was a huge mistake. It was unacceptable, said Iliescu. He pointed out that such a move did not grant Gusa the moral authority to lead the party, which should promote people at the top from its own rank and file.

Nastase retorted. While admitting that he had a poor choice of person, Nastase still defended his move. As for the mistakes of Gusa, who defected to the Democrat Party, Nastase said they where due to Gusa""s impatience to get at the top-most positions with no delay, as other young members in our party tend to do too, said Nastase, hinting at Victor Ponta. This time Iliescu said that he held no interest in further commenting on Gusa.

Another mistake Iliescu pointed out at was giving the ministers the reign of the party too. Iliescu said that while people were selected for ministerial positions on their professional merit, it was unacceptable to also give them the very next day the positions of vice-presidents in the SDP. These actions triggered a negative response from party members, did not give any authority to these leaders, and further crowded the top-most body leading the party, Iliescu said.

Nastase disagreed on this point too. He said that it was not proper to give the minister of foreign affairs, for instance, the rank of simple party member. One needs him to also represent the party internationally, Nastase explained. He also reminded the past experience of PM Nicolae Vacaroiu who entered party ranks in 1995 and was immediately spirited in the position of vice-president. Nastase further defended his move to name members of the government as party leaders, saying that otherwise, the act of government turns hectic and no results may be achieved.

Neither Iliescu nor Nastase wanted to disclose for what positions at the top of the SDP they will be running at the party Congress only weeks away.