The Trabant and the Levant

The Wheeling and Dealing of the Cultural Elite President Traian Basescu, speaking on national radio during a talk-show, said that if Romania had 22 million of [Horia Roman] Patapievici or [Andrei] Plesu, I would not have been elected president. What Romania really needed to avoid having Basescu as president was to not have [Adrian] Nastase [head of the opposition Social Democrat Party] and little bit more luck. One of the absurdities resulting from having Basescu as president is that both Plesu and Patapievici show a side we would have liked to not look at.

Plesu toiled enthusiastically for President [Ion] Iliescu. He toiled for President [Emil] Constantinescu too. While now he is bending back over backwards to serve President Basescu. [Plesu, a leading intellectual and minister of culture and of foreign affairs in previous governments, is now an adviser to President Basescu.] Who is next in his line of masters?
And why talking about the former, present and future misfortunes of Romania the three presidents hurl at each other.
Let us remind here a little tale.

Augustin Buzura [another leading intellectual] found out from journalists that he was dismissed from his position of head of the Romanian Cultural Institute. In an article in Romania Literara Review Buzura explained how President Basescu treated him when finally he found the time to tell Buzura what everybody else already knew.

Buzura and Plesu were good friends for many years, and so they were during the mandates of both President Iliescu and President Constantinescu.
According to Buzura, Plesu asked him to transfer Dilema Review from state property to private property. When Buzura refused, for legal reasons, the long time friendship turned sour.

When Plesu arrived [as presidential adviser] at Cotroceni Palace [presidential office], he decided that it was pay-back time.
He managed to get Buzura dismissed by way of a presidential decision.
The rudeness of the speech and the cynical laughter belong entirely to President Basescu. But in this case the president served the adviser and not the other way around. This is a quite an unbecoming switch of roles. In the old times there was the good habit of trying to wrap things up nicely. Why this did not happen this time: for shortage of wrapping paper at Cotroceni Palace, or what?

Patapievici is one of the leading intellectual in Romania. His appointment at the helm of the Romanian Cultural Institute [thus replacing Buzura] should be a moment of joy, had the circumstances not been so murky.
As for the huge admiration Basescu holds for Patapievici s work, let us make a single test. Let Basescu cast his eyes on a single page Patapievici had written and you would see the president falling flat on his back. Lucky he Plesu may resurrect him with his good wishes.

Ever since the Romanian Cultural Foundation was founded [by Buzura] I was extremely critical of it.
For this reason my relationships with Buzura were colder than Alaska s climate and never returned to what they once were.
At that time the Plesus were happy employees of the Foundation. Now, when people who Buzura provided with a big slice of a luxury cake stage on him such a demeaning exit, one has to question oneself were these ferocious instincts of the elite are coming from.

People who support President Basescu, like myself albeit in a moderate version, wait for the man they formerly called the Chief Yokel of Bucharest [hint at Basescu foul mouthed talking and behavior during holding the office of Bucharest Mayor] to make the difference between being the head of pirogue and the head of a state. The one who pushes him to become the first, is only harming him.

Finally, one of the most cherished national sports turned to be lately kissing Basescu s ass. I still do not grasp where the progress lies.