Traian Basescu doesn't want to form a Government with the PNL, but to engulf compromise or break the liberal formation because it's got credibility, PNL leader Crin Antonescu claims. He said that the issue for the liberals is whether they wish "to fuel a little Basescu's gas station", Romanian news agency Mediafax informs.

Crin Antonescu's declaration comes one day after the PNL Political Office announced that it excluded "any participation in a Traian Basescu puppet Government". Still, Crin Antonescu stated on Wednesday that "had I a solid majority, a team picked by me and I program for which I could take responsibility for, sure I would accept to be Prime Minister with Traian Basescu in Cotroceni".

The liberal leader claims that Traian Basescu doesn't aim to form a Government with PNL in order to have a parliamentary majority, which could be otherwise achieved as well, but to compromise PNL's credibility:

• "I am absolutely convinced that Mr. Traian Basescu doesn't wish for governance with PNL. He does not need it. He doesn't want it, we don't want it, I can't see why we would argue about it in the following days. What Mr. Basescu wants is something else. To have majority. If he wishes, tomorrow he'll have 30 MPs, 30 MPs he'll have from PNL, or PSD, I am telling you this straight. But he's bothered by the existence of a party or people with certain credibility", Crin Antonescu stated on Wednesday evening for Romanian TV channel Antena 3, according to Mediafax.

• Crin Antonescu also notes that the "manoeuvres" started by Traian Basescu, like the phone cal with Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and the way the press has commented on the issue, would target "PNL to lose credibility, not so much its enrolling and engulfing, but compromising, if possible, both PNL and Antonescu (...), but breaking PNL, at least one part of it, which he has done once".

• Asked what he would do if Traian Basescu designated him PM, Crin Antonescu replied: "It is not something I aim for, let us be understood. It is not something I target, but I believe that anyone to fill this role and had good intentions, forces, independence and a programme could do a good job, even if the person is contemporary with Traian Basescu's presidency, on condition that the person is not Traian Basescu's puppet".