What a pity they didn't choose Marian Vanghelie! We would have had a full show. But there's still hope we'll get real fun during the campaign, since the mayor of Bucharest District 5 has solemnly announced he'll make a tandem with "Cristi" Diaconescu. So we'll see the refined diplomat walking shoulder to shoulder with the inventor of the New Year's Eve parties for the poor, giving sausages, grilled meat balls and beer to the large masses in Izvor Park, Bucharest, on occasions such as May 1 or God knows what holiday the president of the PSD (Social-DEmocrat Party) Bucharest branch finds in the religious calendar. Well, this is a piece of a family picture, isn't it? Unfortunately for the inhabitants of Bucharest, yesterday they were left without the opportunity to vote for a self-declared expert in infrastructure such as Miron Mitrea is. So let's wait and see how the PSD strategists will approach it this time. They promised a mayor to be good at pavement holes, but they produced a candidate looking the very way Mircea Geoana looked like in 2004. I wonder if Cristian Diaconescu knows in which Bucharest district Magurele is situated. Given his sad look when the Executive Committee was voting, this seems to be his last problem. His whole look, that of a European politician, the man expected to fetch a change in the party's look, will be defiled by the adversaries within the party and in other parties. I bet Afrian Nastase is rubbing his hand with joy: Well, we've fixed this one too! And by the way, since the Constitutional Court settled his trouble with Justice, why hasn't he joined the fight? He's experienced, he ruled the country from Victoria Palace for 4 years, didn't he? He's got results, since the Social-Democrats claim their government was the best Romania has had after 1989, more exactly in 2001-2004. Given such a background, how could Cristian Diaconescu, Miron Mitrea, Sorin Oprescu or Marian Vanghelie oppose him? Or is he on the watch from within by any chance? He had no problem fighting against the four, but he had had a problem when faced with Ion Iliescu in the 2005 Congress. . Or is it that, once a mayor of Bucharest, he would have to disclose the tricks played while Traian Basescu and Adriean Videanu headed the City Hall? But enough with the jokes! If you take a look at the officials parties have come up with, from the left to the right, from every locality to Bucharest, you feel like wondering: "But what am I guilty of?" By the way, Theodor Stolojan couldn't help himself and, while speakinh up on the stage, and he repeated that cheap story with rejuvenating the political class. Were the projectors blinding him so much that he couldn't even see the first row of seats? Let's take a quick look at the tandems of candidates wishing to head district councils and the city halls of Romanian districts, the ones much praised by Gheorghe Flutur, the ones the Democrat-Liberals want to fetch in order to rejuvenate local administrations. So what can we find in Dolj, for instance? A tandem made up of Radu Berceanu and Antonie Solomon. Of course the locals are eager to vote for a new approach to leadership, aren't they? The Romanians in the dictrict of Olt have neither got a reason to complain, for the Democrat-Liberals are making a sacrifice: Octavian Popescu (a former anf future prefect, as the famous interwar politician would say) and ruling mayor Darius Valcov, known rather as the husband of Lavinia Sandru. A piece of rejuvenation, isn't it? The tandem in Arad looks alike. Which local is there to distrust Nicolae Iotcu and Gheorghe Falca? Things are about the same in all districts. And not only as far as the Democrat-Liberals are concerned. It's enough for us to think of Mazare and Constantinescu from Constanta district and we can see it's the same with the PSD. Of course the National Liberal Party and the Democrat Union of Magyars in Romania are no better. But there is a small difference: since they are parties in power, they have turned their ministers into local candidates. And we'll learn their "tandemns" in a couple of days. It is strange that those party best rated in polls have produced this tandem concept. Recent experience has it that it has been a bad idea almost always. Let's remember only the success of the Adrian Nastase (president)- Mircea Geoana (PM) tandem and the ashes left of the Traian Basescu-Calin Popescu Tariceanu couple. Still there is an explanation. Using a word such a tandem, our parties are trying to hide the immortal "staff shift". Hide it from whom? This is sad, but true: from the very electorate.

Roland Catalin PENA