THE vote was supposed to bring clarity and solve all the problems Romania has. Getting rid of the country's abrasive, polarising and allegedly abusive president was the number one priority for the centre-left government led by Victor Ponta. And yet on July 29th, Romanians dealt a blow to the plan. The referendum asking for the president to leave office did not gather enough voters to be declared valid. Out of the country's 18.3m registered voters, more than half should have turned up for the result to be approved by the Constitutional Court. Just 8.4m participated, out of which 87.4% said yes to Traian Basescu being removed from office. Only little over 11% said no and 1.3% of the ballots cast were invalid, according to official results after 99.9% of the votes were counted. This means Mr Basescu is slated to return to office and finish his mandate, which ends in 2014. The political infighting, however, is not likely to end anytime soon despite warnings from EU partners and a troika consisting of the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission due to arrive in Bucharest on July 31st to evaluate the commitments attached to a €5 billion 'standby' loan. A severe drought, the continued euro-crisis and now the political instability are all factors weighing down on the Romanian economy.



"I call upon all political forces in Romania to take the result of the referendum as a chance for a new beginning," German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said in a press statement on Monday. "Beyond all differences, they should all go back as soon as possible to a constructive cooperation preserving Romania's interests and those of its citizens. Differences of opinion should be clarified and overcome within the democratic processes and institutions," he added.



A similar appeal came also from the head of the Social-Democrats in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, who urged "all parties to act responsibly for the country and stop the infighting which could endanger Romania's credibility and position in Europe."



The quick moves carried out by the Ponta government to take over control over state institutions and ignore rulings of the Constitutional Court have seen an unprecedented avalanche of criticism from European partners. The EU commission in a report issued on July 18th even doubted that the government "understands" the meaning of rule of a law in a democracy.



Mr Basescu, a former sea captain, who has survived another such referendum in 2007 and has been in office for the past eight years, is openly hated by many Romanians. Street protests earlier this year have led to the resignation of a government loyal to Mr Basescu. Dozens of people still gather downtown Bucharest every day asking for him to leave, denouncing cronyism and nepotism. (Mr Basescu's daughter has been elected MEP with help of his party.) The referendum campaign has polarised society even more. Commentators on Antena 3, a news channel, which has been ferociously critical of Mr Basescu, have lambasted an Olympic medal winner for stating she would not go vote in the referendum. Mr Ponta last week took several TV journalists to showcase a villa allegedly refurbished with great luxury that is to become Mr Basescu's residence once his mandate runs out.

The pro-Basescu camp was also unabated in showing the flaws of the current government. A leaked 'partnership' between Mr Ponta and a trade union of ex-military men showed that they pledged to scrap all "Stalinist institutions" such as the Constitutional Court, the anti-corruption prosecutors and the body checking if public officials were collaborators of the Securitate, the former Communist secret police. The interim president, Crin Antonescu, admitted he was also there when the pact was signed, but claimed these points were only indicative and to be negotiated at a later stage.

Faced with opinion polls showing clearly that people who will vote will do so to get rid of Mr Basescu, his camp advised him to adopt a boycott strategy, even though he initially said he would take up the fight and try and convince the public to vote against what he described as "coup d'etat." On July 30th, Mr Basescu tried to spin the low turnout as a vote in his favour. "A majority of Romanians, around 10.5 million, did not participate or said no to the proposal of removing the president from office (...) If someone plans to represent only 7 million, I can be president for all 22 million," he said in a press conference in which he clearly stated no intention of resigning.

Mr Basescu claimed that he would henceforth focus all his attention on healing the "enormous rift in the society" and pledged to cooperate with the government. In the same breath, however, he also pledged to follow up on any reported irregularities during the elections and pursue the ones responsible for the failed "coup".

For his part, Mr Ponta said Mr Basescu has become an "illegitimate president" and should stop clinging to power. "At this point in time, Mr Basescu only represents himself. And perhaps Viktor Orban," he said, in reference to the advice given by the Hungarian prime minister for the roughly one million Hungarian ethnic voters in Romania not to vote.

Politicians within the ruling Social-Liberal Union have said they will advise the Constitutional Court to validate the vote anyway, as many of the registered voters left Romania and have not voted in years. The Constitutional Court is expected to give its verdict in the coming days, after the electoral authority finishes its count. The only certainty is that the political trench war will carry on, whatever the verdict.