December 13, 2004
Basescu?
As of 11:00 this morning, it looks like Traian Basescu has defeated Adrian Nastase in the runoff election for the Romanian Presidency.
If the mood in my office is typical, then most Romanian readers of this blog will already be celebrating. Non-Romanians will be wondering what it's all about.
Short version: Nastase, the current Prime Minister, was very much the business as usual candidate. He ran a campaign whose message was (I am paraphrasing), "who cares if there's corruption? We're getting some good economic growth. We're going to join the EU. Sit back and don't worry your pretty little head about politics."
Basescu... well, Basescu at least presents the possibility of change. He's a former naval officer who's been the Mayor of Bucharest for the last few years. He has his little quirks, which I may blog about later, but most urban and educated Romanians consider him vastly preferable to Nastase.
This result is unexpected, to say the least. Nastase beat Basescu by 8 percentage points in the first round, two weeks ago. And he had near-total dominance of the media, a much larger and more powerful party machine, and pretty much unlimited funding. Even Basescu supporters had seemed more or less resigned.
If this result is confirmed, it means that Romania will be entering on a period of "cohabitation", with the Prime Minister's office and the Presidency held by different parties. This will be a new thing for Romania.
Posted by douglas at December 13, 2004 11:33 AM"This result is unexpected, to say the least. Nastase beat Basescu by 8 percentage points in the first round, two weeks ago."
--there's no smoke without a fire, apparently Basescu was right when signaling the 1st round elections "were altered". And, besides the media coverage and the virtual unlimited funding you mention, this should make the victory even sweeter.
I am quite curious to what Basescu will do regarding the "elections alteration" after things will settle down.
Btw, last breaking news is that PUR is breaking up from the PSD + PUR alliance and will form independent groups in Parliament. :)
Posted by: Dragos at December 13, 2004 02:13 PMHeh... You beat me to that particular bit of news!
We live in interesting times.
Totally unrelated question for our Romanian readers: is there a shelter for battered women in Bucharest? (No, no. Not for me.) I need a number, quickly. Anyone can help?
TIA,
Claudia
Posted by: claudia at December 13, 2004 03:08 PMI wonder whether the upcoming presidential elections can have a similar kind of effect on Croatian government - in other words, whether the overwhelming 1st round victory of Stipe Mesic can lead some of Sanader's allies in Parliament to "act for the good of the country"?
Posted by: Dragan Antulov at December 13, 2004 04:20 PMWhile I am happy Basescu is president, I am fairly uncertain about what Basescu will do, especially in the context of a majority parliament made up of Alliance+PUR+UDMR, which are basically five loose parties strung together with no harmony between them.
While Basescu will introduce a lot of much-needed reforms (corruption, press freedom, taxation, etc), I can't help but think that his term will be a lot less smoother than Nastase's. He has already said that Europe is his third priority in foreign policy, after the USA and Moldova! And it seems he lacks the diplomatic touch of Nastase. While there are benefits to this (such as actually taking through prickly reforms), it eerily reminds me of when Constantinescu was in power and the fiasco he created there. Everyone had high hopes then too...
Posted by: Mihai at December 14, 2004 08:33 AM