If the Democrat Party has seven lives, as cats are said to have, it still has nothing to fear of, because Traian Basescu hasn't given it but two lethal strokes: one when he forced its members to leave the governing and the second one now, when he played with the bomb of the Pension Law. It would have five more strikes to fear. There are some feared gangs in my neighbourhood, which most of the ordinary people avoid. Their members take is as a sign of respect, when, in fact, they are only being marginalized into a black fold of the civilization. That's how things go in PD as well: each one would like to get rid of Basescu's terror but, every now and then, the sea monster takes his head out and, all of a sudden, all of them stand stock-still with fear. If I am to speak in Heidegger's language, as Liiceanu would like, Basescu is indeed to deinotaton, not in the meaning of "grim", as the plagiarist philosopher erroneously translates from Greek, but in the meaning Zoe Petre suggested, that is "terrible", as this word contains a semantic ambivalence similar to its Greek corespondent. Basescu is also "the one that produces fear", and the "remarkable" one and the "courageous" one. He is, at the same time, the "hero" for some people and the "dreadful" for others. These traits, doubled by a rarely seen shiftiness among the Romanian politicians, turn him into a character that everybody would have seen as sent home. However, there are few those daring to face him. Let's have a look at the liberals. They have needed two years to get rid of the fear to confront him and have born with endurance his dreadful blows under the belt and have remained silent! Now, as they are freed, they look compassionately at the Liberals who had run under Stolojan's skirt, as they have become obedient little fish, who are glad that, from time to time, the monster opens his mouth and swallows them. However the true nightmare of living together with the sea monster from Cotroceni Palace is for PD to suffer. Being all gathered behind Basescu, the PD members have got into power and, when they felt the best, they had to leave, although none of the ministers wished to. Let's be honest, almost all the PD ministers proved to be good partners with Tariceanu's Liberals, the same as with those from PC (Conservative Party) or UDMR (Democratic Union of Magyars in Romania). Also, many of the Government's current economic successes are their merit, too. Unfortunately, Vasile Blaga, Codrut Seres, Radu Berceanu or Laszlo Borbely have been worth for Traian Basescu even less than the straps of Elena Udrea's bra. After the circus generated by Basescu's envy against those who have found solutions to the pension increase, the PD members should be aware that, in spite of the polls, they head to the public enclosure of the political sports ground, where fans sit, as they are the ones who bear the water canons and the hits of the police forces. Unless they try to become again a party with an ideology far from Basescu's personal ambitions, the PD members run the risk to look all like Emil Boc. It's the same as in 2004, when the PSD (Social Democrat Party) members tried to imitate even the voice of Nastase. The best proof of this dangerous trajectory is the Pension Law itself. It is known that PD members have voted in unanimity for the PNL-PSD project to pass. When Basescu's contest came from Cotroceni, all the PD members started to contest their own vote on different TV stations, although they knew, from the debates in the Parliament, that the sources for financing the pension increase exist! Unlike other parties, PD still has the chance of the easiest reforming. They don't have to replace old structures, not to change obsolete ideologies. They only need the courage to fight Basescu back so that the party gets back its identity, as a political structure. Otherwise, five more lethal strokes come in no time.

ION SPANU