Nastase: Early elections only with President's blessing

One day after President Ion Iliescu told PSD (Social Democrat Party) members that he “was no propaganda man” for this party and cautioned them “it is not wise to take credit” for the success in Prague, PM Adrian Nastase yesterday said that a solution for early elections would only be embraced if the chief of state and other parties agreed to it first. Also yesterday, PSD Deputy Radu Podgoreanu, who was the first to attack Iliescu from within the ruling party, apologised to both the chief of state and to the PM, for the “artificial tensions” caused.
“Such a solution cannot possibly be accepted unless approved and accepted by the President of Romania, who has a major constitutional role in this regard, and by the other political parties,” the Prime Minister yesterday said, commenting on early elections.
The disputes about early elections may be resumed over the next few weeks, as the Cabinet head also said that the strategy for the near future would be analysed after the meeting of the European Council in Copenhagen. Which reunion will take place between December 12-13 and from which Romania expects to get a roadmap for the EU accession negotiations and increased financial aid.
The PM added PSD was not “obsessed” with having the early elections. The argument, which Nastase reiterated, is that this process could, however, help avoid the obstruction of certain domestic and foreign affairs actions in an electoral year.
The foreign affairs matters Nastase referred to include the passing of the NATO accession treaty by the Parliaments of NATO countries and the continuation of EU accession negotiations.
“We do not want early elections as a stand-alone action as neither have we got an obsession about getting a vote of confidence from the population,” the Cabinet head explained.
Adrian Nastase seems to have backed off a bit, if considering his attitude two weeks ago when the issue was brought up again.
“The discussion we had was no negotiation. We did not seek to persuade the President,” the PM was saying about his discussion with the President in Cotroceni.
Brought up again two weeks ago, the early elections issue has been dissected over and over again nearly every single day. President Iliescu has constantly said no to early elections. PNL (National Liberal Party), PD (Democrat Party) and PRM (Greater Romania Party) also said no, with only UDMR (Democrat alliance of Hungarians in Romania) saying it “might be convinced.”
However, Adrian Nastase has slightly changed his point of view in the meantime.
Soon after the Prague summit and the visit of the American President George W. Bush to Bucharest, Nastase was telling Mediafax in an interview that “together with President Iliescu and the other responsible political forces we will find a solution,” about the early elections. The next day, Nastase was focusing even more on this idea, highlighting the need “for consultations with President Iliescu.”