PNL’s plans to expel two former party presidents have given rise to all sorts of scenarios in the media. Most opinions have been negative. Allegedly this comes against party democracy principles. A handful of analysts eventually bothered to agree that it might turn out a good idea (but only in the short run, so PNL should not rest on its laurels). Let’s review the facts. Once President Băsescu... 

The file declassification topic fits Traian Băsescu like a glove. Opinion leaders and political analysts were just noticing an inclination towards balance and wisdom that the President was ever more often taking up when he had problems to handle. Some of the President’s imagology scaffolding was being eaten into, with the increasingly evident failure of the battle against corruption or at least... 

The incumbent Power primarily deserves credit for dislocating some of the “cornerstones” of the rotten communist-repressive system, which has appropriated Romania and has been pillaging it for over sixteen years. This should be enough; they will do the rest themselves. It is precisely what we can see these days. The downpour of “revelations” and mutual accusations shows that rival factions... 

Looking at the recent moves of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), one can’t help wondering what all this commotion that seems to have taken over party leaders is all about. One motion of no confidence after the other, meetings of party members, bombshell statements, attempts at joining forces with other parties… If we were to believe Mircea Geoană, it only takes one flick for the incumbent... 

Another method used in misappropriating public assets is the under-appraisal of companies, which allows for State-run businesses to be taken over for chicken feed. The modus operandi is quite simple. The targeted company is under-assessed (either through flawed management, which buries the company in debts, or by using the accounting value rather than the market value of assets as a starting point),... 

The end of June offered political sensationalism gourmets a new episode in the Băsescu – Tăriceanu duel. While we do not claim to compete with the reports and analyses in the media at the time, we would like to provide readers with a different scales to measure the foreign policy decision to pull out Romanian troops from Iraq. The pros Surprisingly enough, Premier Tăriceanu was the first... 

The country report, which, the Romanian political class presumed, would give us the passport for the European Union entry, and after which politicians would be free to do as they pleased, like conscripts after the discharge, shed light on some interesting trends in the main Romanian parties. The Commission verdict put them on hold, but, as Eminescu put it, “eyes closed to the outside will open... 

Years 1989-2006 will remain in history books as the “wild capitalism” era. Which is not to say that as of January 1, 2007 (the almost certain date of our EU accession) swindles will no longer be possible – they are reported in EU member states, too – but their occurrence will drastically fall compared to current rates. One of the media undertakings most harmful to the Romanian... 

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) continues to stay at the “alarm level” in polls, on the one hand thanks to Ion Iliescu’s populist-revolutionary discourse (one denouncing even more fierce than Vadim Tudor the corruption in Romania), on the other hand “thanks” to the corruption spreading in PSD in 2000-2004, whose exposure had its indirect casualties among senior members... 

The recent escalation of disagreements between D.A. Alliance partners seems to rule out any possibility of cooperation between the Liberals and Democrats and to push things towards early elections and a reconfiguring of the political arena. But this will happen after the accession, next year at the soonest. For the time being, each party I trying to assert as clearly as possible its own identity. The...