I have recently learnt that, according to Romania's 2008 astrogram, this new year will be calm, pragmatic and favorable to reasonable cooperation. Although the firmament is the oldest and most loyal navigation instrument for any coxswain, it is either that President Basescu can't read the starts or that he didn't like what he saw since, once all Romanians are back from their holidays, he has started to use his wrathfulness again. From his privileged unilateral relations with Washington, Mr. President is sure to keep the idea of legitimate preventive offenses in mind and use it in domestic politics with a constancy that would be worthy of a better end. In 2005, the very day after he had just patched a coalition for ruling, when everybody was eager to see him attack the adversaries mercilessly, we got to see him attack his new allies. Once with the floods, the obsessive target of preventive attacks shaped itself and ever since then the PNL (National Liberal Party) has been the addressee of presidential aggression. The PNL recommends someone to become a minister and the President dismisses that someone at once. Preventively, no doubt. Whether he is right or wrong doesn't matter. And the mass media is on the watch out to prove him right. The scheme is clear: the President announces preventively that the Liberals' choice is as bad as possible and the mass-media starts a voluptuous, destructive action, ordered out of caution too, isn't it? During a TV show reviewing the political events of 2007, the host kept on saying something that seemed to have been rehearsed: the conversation between Romania's foreign minister and the US state secretary had been just some yes-sighing from the Romanian official. This is false. In vain did Mr. Ratesh, a very objective witness of the visit to Washington, explain in an interview to the "22" review that to mistake the photo the officials used to pose for before the start of the actual meeting with the meeting was either sheer ignorance or ill intention. His colleagues have pretended not to hear his words. Let me get one thing straight: far be it from me that I should think Liberal ministers are perfect. It is human(e) to make mistakes every now and then. Each of them was more humane that appropriate in such a fierce war. But did the mass media rebuke Mr. Basescu as 'preventively', he would need two days at most - and no lie - to persuade all of us into thinking that no one can compete with our beloved president for an honoring status such as a champion of political errors. The thorough booing Mr. Basescu got while delivering his New Year's speech in the Constitution Square has remained unknown to most of the public opinion because television was careful enough to veil it with appropriate fireworks. But the President himself shouldn't ignore that booing. The success rate of the affray Mr. Basescu mistakes for politics is ceaselessly diminishing. As this rate is actually the only indicator he is concerned with, the fact that he didn't reach the proper conclusions on the incident is not only disgraceful, but also something to worry about. The wine's effects on presidential reason are humane too, even if not exactly legitimate. But did he inebriate with illusions, we would have a problem. Perhaps in the GPS era astrograms seem old-fashioned to the coxswain. Very well. Then he should read in the exasperation he got for welcome from "the people", his main partner for open dialogue, in the New Year's Eve - more royal than the King of Spain himself, who asked Chavez a rhetorical question: Why couldn't he shut up? In the New Year's Eve Romanians told Mr. Basescu to shut up.

Zoe PETRE