Until recently, the ruling party and the government run by Adrian Nastase seemed to give value to all the advantages favoring our joining NATO, the UE and the winning of the 2004 elections. The success seemed inevitable. The Prime Minister declared 2004 to be the year of the EU accession. Being a goal of national importance, he asked for a kind of moratorium on the accession, to avoid it becoming a controversial electoral subject. If the scenario were put into practice, the Social Democrat Party would become famous in history for its undeniable successes - for joining the security structure of the North Atlantic, for negotiating the joining to the club of strengthened Western democracies, and for an electoral success that can ensure a lot of mandates. The very moment when PSD was doing the triple somersault, the shabby scaffolding crushed down. Shortcomings, very serious, were revealed to the international eye, and one can only wonder how was the deceiving possible. All the hot topics voiced out now in the West have been signaled several times in Romania by NGOs, political analysts, civil society, non-PSD-oriented press. The constant expression of the critics contradicts the thesis according to which there would allegedly be no freedom of the press in our country. The conclusion of the last 8 years of PDSR (Romanian Democratic Social Party) / PSD (Social Democrat Party)-centered history relates to the incomplete nature of the internal changing of the party and the national reform. When PDSR was the Opposition, a democratic conversion of the ex-FSN members took place. After Iliescu and PDSR having lost the 1996 elections, when the outcome of their political disaster left behind them was very obvious, it was possible for these forces to become irrelevant. By taking distance from the ex-president and his party, the ApR (Alliance for Romania Party) reformists, led by Melescanu, signaled the deficiencies of the way of doing politics. The mistakes made by PNTCD (National Christian Democrat Party), PD (Democrat Party), CDR (Democrat Romanian Convention), the Coalition, Constantinescu were so serious, that people forgot how PDSR and Iliescu had been before. Their image was re-created by the popular imagination, and soon they were seen like savers. After the 2000 elections, PDSR and Iliescu proved how much they had changed during the Opposition years when, since they had no more access to Power, they were forced to learn the ABC of democracy. In addition, the international circumstances after 11 September 2001 determined the US administration to pretend they forgot the anti-NATO, anti-USA and pro-Milosevici outbreaks of people like Iliescu, Nastase, Pascu etc. The changing of the ruling party was partial and superficial. Deliberately, the PSD-members in Victoria Palace and Cotroceni Palace delayed and simulated the reform of justice and administration. After years of negotiations with the European Commission, the scandal of being behind in meeting the political accession criteria comes out in the light. The political control of the "judicial authority" places under question mark the principle of division of powers in a state. The purpose was to protect the clientele-type system of the groups of interests that prospered under PSD protection, despite the fact they were breaking the law. In spite of some economic success, almost insignificant as they didn't ensure the status of functional, market economy, in spite of voting by the Parliament of sets of laws necessary for temporary closing of some negotiation chapters, our country stepped behind, from the point of view of achieving the rule-of-law state. The disaster of the rule-of-law state was signaled not only by the European Parliament Report and various European leaders, but also by the 2003 Report on Human Rights of the US Department of State. The red card of Washington D.C., comes simultaneously from the Executive and from the Legislative. The document refers to the unfulfilled tasks of the rule-of-law state and not to the European analyses (subordination of Justice to politics, corruption as a problem of human rights, lack of restitution by the democratic Romanian state of the properties confiscated by the ex-Communist regime - especially the properties of the Romanian Church united with Rome, the Greek-Catholic, the lack of unrevealing the former Securitate as political police, excessive use of the force towards Rroma communities, abusive Militia-like behavior of some police officers, discrimination of religious minorities, of the women, etc.). In addition, the US Senate decided to keep the Free Europe radio station after the "stupid" reaction of president Iliescu to the possible re-habilitation and re-granting of rights to general Pacepa, after the post-factum counterfeiting of a file, by the nowadays intelligence services, regarding the famous defector, in the spirit of the former communist totalitarian Securitate. Faced with a lot of international pressure, Nastase could have pretended less as far as the reform was concerned. Especially because in the 2004 electoral year, the Opposition will spare no effort to turn the European accession into the main debating topic. Nastase is a controversial politician, scornful, ready to make the triple somersault, even if the life-preserving net is not underneath. He will therefore continue the reform. He knows he still can win, even if PSD's potential to win elections is smaller. We'll see if the reform promised in Brussels will lead or not to the dismantling of the PSD clientele-type system, to removing from the party/administration of some national and local barons and to their sending to court. Beyond the reform of the Justice in papers, we'll see if it will end up with favoring by the justice of the ones, be they important or less important, protected by FSN/PDSR/PSD (starting with generals Chitac and Stanculescu and ending with the tenants' associations). There are relevant statistics regarding the implementation of the court decisions. The polls reveal that there is a percentage of the population that admit they have bribed the Justice. So far, the judicial power has existed as virtual reality. Until we witness spectacular changes around us, we don't have reasons to believe the promises will be kept. The monitoring will be so strict that any attempt made by PSD to cheat will send us to the third alternative to governing. I repeat, as in other editorials, a new force will show up. People stop me in the metro tunnel, in the street, on the airport, many people send me e-mails to make me speak. Soon, I'll let you know what it this third alternative.

Dan PAVEL