Of the possible successors to party leadership, Adrian Nastase, Romania’s Prime Minister between 2000 and 2004, has the biggest chances to replace Geoana at the party’s helm. Well thought-of by his party colleagues who are now sharing the nostalgia of holding the government, Nastase has the handicap of a bad public image, in which money, greed and corruption blend with authoritarian impulses and a relativism towards democratic principles. If in the Social Democratic camp renewal is tantamount to a trip back in time, the other opposition party, the National Liberal Party is certain to bet on continuity.

Part of the political, media and financial group that backed Geoana against Basescu in the presidential race, the Liberals decided to call an extraordinary congress in early March to elect a new leadership and draw up a new status. Their leader, Crin Antonescu stands good chances of getting a second term, as he was elected president of the National-Liberal party for the first time less than a year ago and mustered 20% of votes in the first election round, well over the party’s election threshold.

Nor are the victors laid back; a socialist party until 2005, when they slid towards the popular right, with several liberal dissidents and several members from the civic area grafted on it, the Liberal Democratic Party the entire time has boasted only one doctrine, namely unfaltering loyalty to president Basescu. At his second and last term in office, Basescu is now urging his supporting party to reinvent itself, but for the time being, the so-called reform initiatives did nothing but reveal the profound antipathy between the local tycoons vying for ministerial portfolios and the newcomers with a liberal or civic pedigree.