15/dec/2009 Revista „The Economist” despre alegerile prezidenţiale din România

(Cum se ştie, revista „The Economist” nu scrie foarte des despre România – şi, la drept vorbind, nici nu cred că ar avea motive s-o facă, din păcate. Cum era şi normal, alagerile prezidenţiale, recent încheiate, nu puteau trece neobservate. Iată analiza din ultimul număr al revistei (datat 10 decembrie a.c.) şi, mai ales, nu pierdeţi nuanţele din analiza politicii externe a României ultimilor ani – Ad. C.)

Romania’s presidential election

Against all odds

Dec 10th 2009, from The Economist print edition

Traian Basescu wins a tight but mucky race. Now he must keep his promises

IT SEEMED like a safe bet. Mircea Geoana, the centre-left challenger in Romania’s presidential election, had the money, media and political backing that he needed to win. Sleek and Western-educated, he portrayed himself as the safe consensus candidate against Traian Basescu, the lively but exasperating former sea-captain (and once mayor of Bucharest) who has been the country’s president since 2004.

For a few hours on December 6th it even appeared to have paid off. Exit polls gave Mr Geoana a narrow victory. He did win inside the country by 14,738 votes. But Romanians abroad cast 146,876 votes and Mr Basescu took 78% of them. The campaign was exceptionally dirty: observers think that both sides cheated. Mr Basescu’s victory against largely hostile news coverage was impressive. Mr Geoana wants a rerun, but his support is dwindling. His Liberal allies now hope to form a government with Mr Basescu’s centre-right Democrats.

Mr Basescu’s record is mixed. Elected on an anti-corruption ticket, he has kept up pressure on the country’s endemic sleaze, but selectively. Supporters who once saw him as the apostle of clean government now regard him merely as the lesser of two evils. Critics make fun of his private life, colourful even by local standards. An impulsive and abrasive manner too often curbs his effectiveness.

On foreign policy, he has been a stalwart Atlanticist and strong critic of Russian mischief-making. But his interventions in neighbouring Moldova, an ex-Soviet republic that some see as a lost Romanian province, have been counterproductive. Mr Basescu backed the issuing of Romanian passports to Moldovans (just the sort of thing Russia does in its former empire). That brought him some 90 % of the votes cast there (a handy 8,000). But his near-irredentist stance dismays those who want to stabilise Moldova, not undermine it. Europe’s poorest country, Moldova faces another year of political limbo after its parliament yet again failed this week to elect a new president.

(text integral la http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15066014 )

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