Vote now: Which Elena is Traian Basescu’s greatest achievement?

Traian Basescu, Romania’s president, appeared before the country’s parliament yesterday to defend his record in office, and to list his substantial number of outstanding achievements.

Amongst a number of moot points, Basescu claimed that ‘nobody can deny Romania has moved forward these past five years,’ and that ‘economic growth had been incredible.’

Both true, of course, but as Romania is a country that has been very much on autopilot for the past decade or so, you could probably have had a monkey at the tiller and still got much the same result.

No. For real achievement, you have to look elsewhere. Far too modest a man to say so himself, we would suggest that Basescu’s real achievement these past few years has been his galvanising effect on the less fortunate members of Romanian society. People who, without him as a guiding light to look up to, may never have risen from secretary to cabinet minister in just four years, nor have gone from Romania’s fashion catwalks straight into the European parliament.

So the question of the day is:

Which Elena is Basescu’s greatest achievement?

Is it Elena Udrea (left), a woman who may not have had such a stellar political career if somebody else had been president, or Elena Basescu (right), a part-time model who managed to get a seat in the European parliament (and who calls the president Daddy)?

Vote now for the most successful Elena: Udrea or Basescu?

Tagged as: Elena Basescu, Elena Udrea, Presidential Election 2009, Traian Basescu