The conclusions on Traian Basescu's 3-year reign look bad. Not even himself could make a positive account. Did he do this, no matter how disguised did he make his presidency look like, he could only mention his failing projects, which he would blame on the others. The words that describe these 3 years of reign best are the ones in the title. Three years of blah, blah... His anti-system presidency started noisily. The very first day after his election victory Traian Basescu provided two bombs to the market. That Romania would renegotiate with the EU on those chapters just closed by the Social-Democrat government and ask for different conditions. It was foolish and thank God it was dropped one day later. This is one project that failed. The other bomb was on the famous Bucharest-London-Washington axis. The announcement did Romania much harm, causing both humour and disdain in the US and the UK. In case there was been any axis at work these three years, it has been a one-way axis: Basescu's humbleness in front of the Great Glowworm. The alliance between the Liberals and the Democrats was the next great political failure. What followed we all know. Out of despair the Democrat Party lost its identity as a socialist party first and turned into a people's party. Because of the recent fusion with the Liberal Democrat Party and the making of a new political hybrid, the Democrat Party is also losing its name. The effect of it is a pell mell with the Socialists and the Liberals finding themselves in the European people's family. And now the European party families, the EPP included, look at Romania as if looking at the zoo. He didn't even manage to overthrow the Tariceanu government. The presidential project on early elections, actually just a sketch, turned to ashes too. And Traian Basescu has almost never succeeded in being a president-player. The referendum on the uninominal vote system proved to be perfectly useless human and financial efforts, for the President spoke "on behalf of the people", although he was not asked to. It has also been proved in the meantime that the so-called war the President waged against corruption is just a tool for his efforts to undermine his adversaries. This project has reached derision too. Justice was mocked so that his political goals would be attained and its credibility diminished dramatically. The secret services' credibility was severely harmed too. The authority of the Parliament, the press, the Church and the government was undermined, just as the authority of the other state institutions in general. Although trying to make the press obey, Traian Basescu has managed to get what any anti-system chap would manage to: bring journalists at sixes and sevens with each other. Nowadays the support he gets from the media is much smaller than it used to be in the past. At international level, Romania's anyway poor credibility is falling apart also due to the President's blunders and fits. The only successful action was the referendum on the dismissal of the President. After he was suspended, the parties proved unable to stimulate their electorate into taking the next step. The short-term effect of it was to stop the President's electoral support from collapsing. Right now his opinion poll score is again less than 50%. And the decline will continue. After ruling for three years, Traian Basescu should try something different from what he succeeded in while a mayor of Bucharest. He should try to tell the electors that the failure is because of his adversaries and first of all because of the government who wouldn't let him turn Romania in what he pleases. But is this the way he can persuade Romanians into believing it, since Romanians are fed-up with scandal?

Sorin ROSCA STANESCU