Bucharest is bracing for change

Early elections, shrinking electoral capital for the extremist parties, image gain for the ruling party. All these are but some of the consequences of Romania’s NATO accession, as seen by the political leaders or analysts.
*PNL: Romania’s NATO accession may spell PSD (Social Democrat Party)’s exit from the political stage. The current rule wants early parliamentary elections to avoid the 2004 moment when the population starts realising the PSD barons cannot and will not turn the NATO stability factor into economic growth, PNL leader Mircea Cosea said. The Liberal official thinks the voters will not judge PSD by the result in Prague but “by the manner in which the current rule will be capable of making the most of this opportunity in order to improve the population’s living standards.” The Liberals also say PSD is trying to have NATO accession pass for an economic growth factor, intended to solve the serious problems of the Romanian economy.
*PD (Democrat Party) and UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania): Shrinking electoral capital for the extremist political parties. This could be one of the most important changes on the political stage caused by Romania being invited to join NATO, PD deputy leader Emil Boc commented for Ziarul Financiar. He has two arguments to support this view. On the one hand, Romania would be included under the security umbrella of the North-Atlantic Alliance, which would practically erase one of the arguments of the extremists: the anti-national threat. On the other hand, Romania joins an exclusive membership club of mature democracies that will not have an extremist current come to power, which would isolate the extremist parties. At the same time, NATO accession will put more pressure on Romania to take certain steps to provide for the independence of the justice system, for fighting corruption and reaching the functional market economy status.
*UDMR leader Laszlo Borbely thinks Romania’s NATO accession would lead to a shrinkage of the extremist political capital, as this is one of the effects of the steps Romania has to take to make the society democratic after the Prague summit. The Prague moment also means acknowledgement of Romania as a member of the family of truly democratic states and a confirmation of its political stability, Laszlo Borbely told Ziarul Financiar.
* EIU: Political capital for the Nastase Cabinet. The invitation Romania will get in Prague will bring more political capital to the Nastase Cabinet, at least in the short-term, says Joan Hoey, senior analyst with Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) division of The Economist Group, in response to Mediafax’ request.
” In spite of the poverty, unemployment and corruption, of the living standard-related dissatisfactions, the polls show nearly 50% of the respondents would vote for PSD, whilst Adrian Nastase still stands out as the most popular politician of the country,” Joan Hoey says.