A tense yet inconclusive day

In the tensest day since the current Government took office,
president Traian Basescu and the leaders of the two coalition
parties, Emil Boc (PD-L – Democratic-Liberal Party) and Mircea
Geoana (PSD – Social Democratic Party) yesterday passed the ball
from one court to the other and back, like in a tennis match, in an
attempt to resolve the current political crisis. PSD stood by its
Interior Minister, Dan Nica, who is also a vice-prime minister in
the Emil Boc government, to the end, threatening that the party’s
ministers would resign if the minister were removed from his
position. The Prime Minister kept his promise and asked that Nica
be dismissed, even announcing the Minister of Development, Vasile
Blaga, as interim Interior Minister. President Traian Basescu
attempted to calm things down, summoning the leaders of the two
parties for consultations at Cotroceni (Presidential Palace) and
proposing as options either an independent or an opposition
politician as Interior Minister. “I prefer not to hurry, and leave
the two parties to find a solution for the top position in the
Ministry of Administration and Interior. I know very well what
pressure both sides are under as far as their egos are concerned. I
think we are at a stage where the heads of the two parties need to
keep their parties’ egos in check in order to find a solution that
does not push Romania into a political crisis originating from a
constitutional move by the Prime Minister. When the Prime Minister
no longer wants a minister on his team, it is obvious that a
reshuffle has to take place,” Traian Basescu said.