What about Basescu, Iliescu, Stolojan, Nastase, Tariceanu? Where will God send these political leaders: to heaven or hell? An opinion poll released yesterday and titled 'Religion and Politics', authored by the BCS (Social Research Office), shows how Romanians answer this question and others. Half of Romanians know for sure what divine ransom these main political leaders will get. According to the majority, there are only 3 such politicians who can hope to get tickets to paradise: Mugur Isarescu, Traian Basescu and Theodor Stolojan. The others get mostly nominated for hell. And the winner is... Adrian Nastase. There is a considerable number of citizens thinking God played an 'important' or 'very important' part in certain political situations such as the growing popularity of Gigi Becali. Angels and demons Did the way to Beelzebub depend on then, electors wouldn't hesitate to name their 'favorites'. Ion Iliescu is on the top, followed by Basescu, Nastase and Vadim Tudor. On the other hand it is true that, together with Gigi Becali, the present head of state together with the ex President are the first 3 officials likely to reach heaven. 77% are for the presence of Christian symbols in schools Almost all Romanians believe God exists and very many fancy both heaven and hell. Most of them (77%) are against taking Christian icons and symbols out of schools. When asked if they want 200 million Euro to be spent for building a national cathedral, 57% are positive, 29% are against it and 14% can't answer the question. (...)

Ovidiu BANCHES