30 years since the death of Corneliu Coposu: “The courage of the one who does not give in to the temptation of hopelessness and giving up”
“Like Iuliu Maniu, Corneliu Coposu was reviled, betrayed and denounced as an enemy of the people. Hate poured over him, just as it poured over Iuliu Maniu. The cries of the hysterical crowd could not cover or silence his voice”, writes Political Science professor Ioan Stanomir, in an opinion text commemorating the 30th anniversary of Corneliu's death Copos.
Thirty years after his ascension to the eternal, the only time we can write about Corneliu Coposu is that of a present open to the future of our country: his figure is not that of a pious and dusty statue, because he possesses the granite vibration of a heart that is still beating, to guide the hearts of generations to come. Its continuity is the continuity of a boldness of hope. The tenacity of his memory is the tenacity of a faith that redeems the cowardice of a nation.
And the tone that we should choose is never that of barren, dirty hagiography. Corneliu Coposu was a man of his times, defined by a realism of ideals and firmness of action. The patriotism he embodied was one of discretion and courage: detesting the words of demagoguery, Corneliu Coposu forged a language of moral resistance and self-edification. In the digital era of fanaticism and wandering, Corneliu Coposu is the bridge we can step on, to find the eternal light of those before us.
“The homeland he believed in was a homeland of laws and the constitution”
Like Iuliu Maniu, Corneliu Coposu embodied, naturally visionary, politics on a human scale: that politics which, based on dignity and freedom, grants man not the degrading position of a slave of the tyrannical state, but that of a citizen on whose consent the government is founded. Anti-revolutionary, anti-utopian and anti-totalitarian, politics on a human scale does not build temples from bloody sacrifices, but imagines a common good of equality before the law and ethical responsibility.
Like Iuliu Maniu, Corneliu Coposu carries on the tradition that is his matrix: from Simion Bărnuțiu and from George Pop de Băseşti, he inherits the legalistic femininity of the struggle for national emancipation. The homeland he believed in was a homeland of laws and the constitution, a homeland from which tyrannical arbitrariness should be banished. Hostility towards violence and trust in the power of the word to mobilize civic energies is the emblem of this memorandaist reflection that triumphs with the year 1918.
Like Iuliu Maniu, Corneliu Coposu believed in the possibility of rooting political pragmatism in the solidity of the Christian faith: the courage with which he met the terrible suffering that was given to him is the courage of the one who does not give in to the temptation of hopelessness and renunciation.
“Enemy of the People”
Like Iuliu Maniu, Corneliu Coposu was insulted, betrayed and denounced as an enemy of the people. To his nation, re-educated by Ceausianism and faithful to the Fesenist religion, he appeared as an enemy that demanded extermination. Hatred poured over him, just as it poured over Iuliu Maniu. The cries of the hysterical crowd could not cover or silence his voice. His stamp lasted, prophetically. The tenacity of patriotic hope was the foundation of his destiny.
Like Iuliu Maniu, Corneliu Coposu no longer belongs to a party, but confuses himself with the country he never abandoned. The road from Bădăcin or Bobota to us is the road to the discovery of the homelands that make up our homeland. The light of Transylvania's sky descends upon us, like a beacon that guides us through the waves of the turmoil of the future.
The simplicity with which he chose to remain free, during the years when his nation was in slavery
In the end, his undoing was the reunification of the destinies of those before him. Family, community, faith and nation were the circles in which the years of his life were written. The audacious modesty with which he continued is the lesson that Corneliu Coposu teaches to those after him, without grandiloquent emphasis. The basalt simplicity of 1918 is the simplicity with which he chose to remain free, during the years when his nation was in slavery.
And the time of Corneliu Coposu is the time of this Romania which is based on freedom, dignity, solidarity and building. It is that Romania that does not need false prophets and messianic saviors, because it is nourished by patriotic fervour. It is that Romania that refuses privileges and injustice, because it is a homeland of free women and men. It is that Romania that the ancients imagined, during the years of trials. It is that Romania that lives in our hearts, discreet and lasting, like a house where those who are no longer take shelter, to guide our steps, with the clarity of the nostalgia of longing, far from the roar, hatred and sterile bustle, like a sky arched over destinies, not darkened by hopelessness.
