President Traian Basescu is in the Opposition!

The Teodor Melescanu Scandal has replaced the Norica Nicolai Scandal. The Presidency and the Minister of Justice had some rough discussions about the agreement of the President for the investigation of 8 former and current dignitaries.

The Teodor Melescanu Scandal has replaced the Norica Nicolai Scandal. The Presidency and the Minister of Justice had some rough discussions about the agreement of the President for the investigation of 8 former and current dignitaries. Since it is about different interpretations of certain paragraphs in the law that seems to be made in such a way to raise so many questions, the news televisions debated on this mater from sunrise till sunset. The mentioned text sends us to a special reality: the reality of legal interpretations. It is a moment in which the prosecutor and the lawyer seem so convincing that the jury believes both sides. This is what happens to the ones that took part in the controversy launched by the new scandal.

Actually, as I wrote in my previous editorial, the latest happenings are standard for an electoral campaign. A campaign that already decided its main competitors: the Government and the liberals on one side and the Presidency and the liberal-democrats on the other side. Traian Basescu’s behavior isn’t surprising at all. It is the same as in the electoral campaign in 2004, when he was the Opposition’s leader. In 2004, he proclaimed himself as the Leader of the Opposition. In 2008, the Opposition is made of several formations. Therefore, Traian Basescu was forced to be the leader of only one formation in the Opposition, the Liberal Democrat Party. A well-established strategy could be seen in the two scandals. Each action initiated by Traian Basescu is quickly supported by the liberal democrats. Even though the Constitution says he should remain above all the parties because he is the President, Traian Basescu formed a well-known team in the Melescanu scandal. The statements of Traian Basescu and of the DLP leaders were identical. Emil Boc and Elena Udrea accused Teodor Melescanu of misfeasance. The President hurried to repeat the accusation when he returned from Tbilisi.

The two weeks of electoral campaign have also profiled Traian Basescu’s strategy as the leader of DLP. All its elements show the resemblances with the one against SDP in 2004 as the Justice and Truth Alliance leader. Therefore:

1) Identifying NLP with a corrupt party, like in the case of SDP. The operation began long before January 2008. During his numerous TV interventions, Traian Basescu denounced the NLP addictedness as a Government party formed by illegitimate interest groups. Following the same orders, the anti-corruption prosecutors started the investigation of several liberal dignitaries. The scandalous release of the famous list with eight names was supposed to remind that NLP was a corrupt party, much like SDP in the past.

2) Identifying NLP with a party that defends its corrupt members from the law, like in the case of SDP. This started in 2005 when Elena Udrea revealed Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s interventions in the favor of Dinu Patriciu. The scandal of the files that Traian Basescu launched this month wants to show the fact that NLP blocks the investigation of several dignitaries of his.

3) In 2004, by identifying SDP with the state-party, Traian Basescu was perfect playing the role of the victim. By exaggerating as much as he could all the things that happened to him, the leader of the Alliance didn’t stop introducing himself as the Archangel of the fight against corruption. Even though he is the most powerful man in Romania, he plays the same role in 2004 for the campaign in 2008. Poor Teodor Melescanu has been described as a Dictator who blocks the anticorruption warrior.

4) In 2004, Traian Basescu used a violent speech against SDP, a speech full of threats and calumnies. By continuing the strategy that he applied during three years of mandate, Traian Basescu did swear at Teodor Melescanu and already used his already famous disclosures.

5) In 2004, Traian Basescu used the comedy of the ferocious anticommunism against the social democrats. It seems he didn’t use this trick against NLP. It seems. Because he placed himself on more radical positions than NLP when he took over the anticommunist and anti-security theme of the liberals. 2008 brings a premiere in the history of the after-the-Revolution electoral campaigns and in the recent history of Europe I might say: the President is in the Opposition!

• Translated by Anca Păduraru