One of the most important conservative intellectuals in Romania noticed something in Nicușor Dan's speech on Europe Day: Will we become Trump's last licks?
Cluj-based essayist and philologist Adrian Papahagi criticized President Nicușor Dan's speech on Europe Day, which he said was rather a criticism of the European Union, using the rhetoric of AUR and MAGA.
“Was it really appropriate that in the speech on Europe Day the President of Romania criticized the mistakes of the EU in Trump's terms and called on the EU to maintain the partnership with the US, as if the EU, not Trump, is undermining it? On the national day of the Romanians, do you criticize Romania? On Europe Day, the priority is to criticize the Europe attacked by Putin and Trump?”, asks Adrian Papahagi, in a post on Facebook.
He claims that he did not feel “love towards Europe” in the “plain, without pathos and conviction” statement of President Nicușor Dan.
“Grandfather Trompă and MAGA are important”
Papahagi mocked the statement of the head of state related to the fact that Romania is now respected in the EU, even if for a long time it did not know how to defend its interests inside the Union.
“How can everyone not respect you after canceled presidential elections, newly fallen government, extremism in bloom, maximum inflation, terrible economy, MAGA servitude and evasion in the EU? Respectable, I have nothing to say!”, writes Adrian Papahagi.
“What I understood from the speech:
– the EU should continue to give the money;
– Santa Trompă and MAGA are important, why not flatter him on Europe Day too;
– The EU is a subject of controversy, it has made a thousand mistakes (which we, the smart and principled Romanians, have bravely denounced since then – or not?), but forget it, dear goldsmiths, it renovated Dacian things, so don't hate it so much, please;
– let the pro-Europeans leave us with their sloganeering; let's be pragmatic”, continued Adrian Papahagi.
He thought that Nicușor Dan is an isolated and failed president who is leading Romania in the wrong direction.
“Will we become the last licks of Trump in Europe? To no avail, because Trump is moving his troops from Germany to Poland, not to us. We will end up playing slippery games on the Malița-Celac-Adrian Năstase-Ponta-Dungaciu line, that is, a kind of stumbling ballet between Russia, the USA, the EU, Turkey, China, Klingons and Wallachian shepherds from Valahalla?”, Papahagi writes at the end of his post.
The mistakes of the EU, mentioned by Nicușor Dan
In the press statement given on the occasion of Europe Day, President Nicușor Dan evoked the progress that Romania has made since it joined the European Union, but also mentioned mistakes that the EU has made in recent decades.
“When it gave up nuclear and based its energy on cheap gas from Russia, that was a mistake. When it neglected its defense industry, it was a mistake. When in environmental policy, obviously justified, it set some far too ambitious targets, it affected its heavy industry, and that was a mistake. When on several subjects it acted ideologically, it was a mistake. But Europe is a democratic construction and all these are occasions for debate with the cards on the table inside the European institutions”, said Nicușor Dan.
The head of state also referred to the relationship with the USA. “Europe and Romania need the European Union to have a correct, solid, fair partnership with the USA and Romania is a supporter of such a partnership”, said Nicușor Dan.
The President's message comes after the Presidential Administration announced on Wednesday that it decided to cancel the official reception that was to take place this evening at the Cotroceni Palace, on the occasion of Europe Day, citing the political context.
A day before the announcement of the cancellation of the reception, the Bolojan Government was dismissed by the PSD-AUR censure motion, voted by 281 parliamentarians.
