December 17, 2003
Meeting the Prime Minister
So I shook hands with Prime Minister Nastase last night.
Granted, it was in a big room with about 200 other people, and at least half of them shook his hand before the evening was complete. On the other hand, I also shook hands with the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church and Prince Paul of the former royal family. So overall it was a pretty successful evening hand-shaking-wise.
Nastase was younger and smoother than I thought he'd be. Later I googled up his official biography, and was surprised to realize he's only 53. So he was only 39 when Ceausescu went to the wall. The same age I am now, actually. And he had the same job: international attorney. Go figure.
Back before 1989, Nastase was a good Party member and a loyal member of the ancien regime. Then, after things changed, he was a member of the National Salvation Front. It would take a while to explain just what that means, so for now I'll just say it's complicated and I'll do a post on it one day. He was foreign minister for a while, in opposition for a while, his party merged with another party and now he's Prime Minister. Pretty typical for a post-Communist leader in Eastern Europe, actually.
One thing that is unusual: right now Nastase seems to have a pretty good chance of getting re-elected next year. Winning two terms in a row is quite rare in this part of the world; in the 14 years since the fall of Communism, only one other post-Communist government outside the former Soviet Union has managed it.
Supporters of Nastase say it's because his administration has been a great success: three years of strong economic growth, falling unemployment, rising wages, membership in NATO, a slow but steady progress towards European integration and EU membership. Critics claim there is a darker side to his administration: corruption, autocratic tendencies, heavy government pressure on the media, a slow slide back towards one-party rule.
So what's he like in person? Well, like I said, smooth. Very much the politician... which I don't have a problem with; I like a politician who is a politician. (I used to work for a politician who wasn't a politician, and it was rough.) He's rather soft-spoken, and in general gives an impression of being gentle and modest. This is almost certainly not the case, of course. Very few career politicians are gentle, and almost none of them are modest.
Okay English. He made a speech, which was charming and forthright on some issues, deftly evasive on others.
That's probably enough about Prime Minister Nastase for now.