The Liberals in Sibiu Stray Away From Party Line to Show Support for President Basescu

The subsidiary of the National Liberal Party, or PNL, in Sibiu, central Romania, collected seven signatures in support of the party’s proposal to pull out from Iraq.

This is bad or indeed a signal of the liberals in Sibiu straying from the political line supported at the headquarters in Bucharest.

The stance of the PNL, led by PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu, infuriated President Traian Basescu, who assessed the liberals campaign for the Iraqi pull-out was directly aiming at his political agenda and to embarrass him in front of his US counterpart George W. Bush, whom he met Thursday at the White House.

Investigating the shocking low score of signatures in Sibiu, I was able to find out that the campaign was a sham. Its actual aim was to put a negative spin and show that the Iraqi pull-out had no popular support, in sheer contradiction with the constant findings of the opinion polls.

The result came about so strikingly low because no member of the public actually knew a list was open for signing, or that the list was closed to further signatures.

The questions one might have on the stance of the liberals in Sibiu are answered when reminding ourselves that this is the PNL subsidiary closer to Basescu’s stance, than to that of its own party.

This past act might be a feat of courage or of madness, like those of people who enter the bear’s den.