Discussions about the formation of the new government began to resemble more and more a mixture of rumours, emotions and strategic improvisations. I saw yesterday's consultations. I also saw the version “based on sources” of a technocrat prime minister, an IMF economist. I have also seen the reactions of some parties that accept, in principle, the idea of an independent prime minister, but with experience and a good knowledge of Romanian political realities. At the same time, the voices pushing towards the PSD+AUR formula continue to appear, meaning exactly the “majority” that brought down the Bolojan Government.
Pseudo-strategic explanations also appeared: “let them govern, so that the world can see that they are not capable.” Others say that it is not a tragedy if an extremist party comes to power, because “it has happened in other European states.”
All these arguments show, in fact, the degradation of political culture and the capacity for analysis. Less and less is read, international comparisons are made superficially, and judgment based on data and institutional experience has almost disappeared from all political parties. In its place came the jerk, the emotional reaction and the thirst for power.
However, a few simple things need to be clarified.
AUR is not a “radical left” party, as some are confusingly trying to suggest. AUR is a far-right party, exactly the ideological space from which fascism and interwar legionnaires were born.
Moreover, AUR does not resemble the great conservative or nationalist parties of Western Europe. You hardly find a party in Europe that simultaneously combines fascist reflexes, pro-Russian sympathies, anti-Semitic and anti-European discourse, as well as an anti-national rhetoric masked in aggressive patriotism.
Meanwhile, PSD and PNL still do not understand clearly enough that every day of conflict and deadlock erodes their credibility as serious and responsible parties. And every day of chaos produces only one winner: GOLD.
And one more thing about surveys. If you measure your blood sugar 30 minutes after eating cake, the values will obviously be high. This is exactly how politics works after emotional explosions, scandals and media “fireworks”. Polls capture momentary reactions, not consolidated realities. It takes time for things to settle down.
But perhaps the most important thing is another. In Romania there is still a mass of about 4–6 million citizens who do not participate in the daily political swearing sessions and do not confuse politics with the stadium. They are the people who, in the delicate moments, saved Romania electorally. They do not instinctively vote either left or radical right. Vote for the center, moderation, balance and rational decision.
This democratic center made possible the election of Nicușor Dan as president of Romania and prevented a candidate associated with the extremist, fascist and legionnaire discourse from gaining the highest position in the state.
Precisely for that reason, it is correct that President Nicușor Dan is trying, these days, to identify a moderate and functional center solution, capable of maintaining Romania's democratic and western direction. It is not radicalization and the politics of resentment that can stabilize the country, but dialogue, balance and the ability to build rational majorities.
For the moment, the parties seem to be fighting exclusively for the consolidation of their own captive electorate. The problem is that, in this permanent confrontation, I lose the very area that decides the democratic future of a country: the center.
And without a center, democracy becomes only a confrontation between extremes, emotions and resentments. Romania does not need such a thing. Romania needs lucidity, responsibility and the ability to build solutions before anger becomes state politics.
The text was also published on the revisteicultura.ro website.
