A few days ago Claudia was mentioning 11 things for which she loved Romania. My response was that (and this is part of me returning to Romania) one of the most fascinating things here is that you never get bored since there's always something happening that triggers a sentiment -- be it anger, frustration, joy, happiness or outrage.
Well, the last one is the (probably and hopefully the very) last decision (still) president Iliescu made today - he revoked his yesterday's decision of releasing Miron Cosma from prison. While he tries to correct a huge mistake I believe that this is an incredible fact -- one cannot become more ridiculous other than this way. I am just astounded, firstly I couldn't believe it, not it is official apparently.
Apparently the story goes like this -- the release decision couldn't have become official without Nastase's signature. Initially Nastase claimed he never signed it off, then few hours later he declared he did. Contradictory, eh? The plain truth is that Nastase never signed the decision, somebody else did it in his place and that triggered a bit of a tension between himself and Iliescu. And also the public opinion put a HUGE pressure on Iliescu and so the old man turned it back. Any way you would look at it the back and forth decision is a big political mistake.
My conclusions -- that's a typical way Romania has been led for the last 14 years, and I am (once more) relieved to see the old man go (I tend to agree with Troniu on this one - we will never be sure we'll be on the right path until the old man is gone for good - literally). Iliescu corrects a huge mistake that actually may not be as evident since it is said that Miron Cosma is already in Timisoara looking for leaving the country. Moreover, the decision is applicable to all the 44 gangsters, and that's only because of Cosma - an interesting situation even though the other 43 are as criminal as Cosma is. I only hope that all the naive people thinking that (and voting for) Iliescu was an honorable old man who did good things for Romania got their lesson and saw his real face. Finally Basescu should speculate this moment by showing the exact role of presidency and the entire moral of the story. It would be a mistake not to. :)
UPDATE: 1. Reading more carefully, the linked piece of news says that the release decision will be "re-analyzed" and not revoked.
2. According to the 2pm news Cosma was already arrested back in Timisoara and he tried to resist it. The police did its duty and I feel safer now. :)
Whew... it's great he revoked his decision. It seems Iliescu has indeed turned increasingly "unstable" during his last days (in fact, his last months). He wasn't like this in 2000-2003 (the international pressure may have something to do with this - now he's outgoing and free to do what he likes). Anyway, as I said before, the best punishment for the PSD would be the recall of the election for the parliament. That may as well happen if Basescu gets his way.
You may be right with the early elections. But this Cosma circus certainly moved the weight of media attention from the setting up government scenarios.
You know how when some wine gets spilled on a new carpet, and then someone panics and tries to clean the wine and only makes the stain worse and worse, so they end up looking even more foolish? Well, the new carpet is the future Romania and Iliescu is on his knees right now, scrubbing away.
A slight nuance here Frank: the wine didn't get spilled, Iliescu rather spilled it on purpose as he treated it as if if'd been its own. Turns out that most of the other 22 million owners didn't quite like the idea of wine on a new couch. :)