EDITORIAL : NINE O'CLOCK, ROMANIA

Country on fire, politicians putter away the hours…

Many politicians’ phrases have enriched local folklore, mostly for platitude or grammar mistakes. Over the time, we have reminded of the Traian Basescu patented logos ‘Here is your money’ – sign posts on the side of the roads repaired during his term in office as transport minister and ‘winter is not summer’, when he was general mayor of Bucharest. The president’s youngest daughter, Elena Basescu – now a member of the European Parliament – is also part of the folklore with her funny made-up plural of the Romanian word ‘success’.

The list is long and Romanian politicians never stop amazing with more new phrases and facts worthy of cartoons or humorous literature. Romania is still in a very difficult period. Although the crisis seems to be lowering in intensity, all specialists share a moderate optimism.

IMF has warned the US and Europe against dangers lurking from behind sovereign debts and national deficits. Not really good economic news is coming from Washington’s way and everybody knows that, when US sneezes, Europe gets the flu.

Preferring to disregard the general concern, Bucharest discusses collateral topics these days: Constitutional review, parliamentary reforms or administrative re-organisation of the territory. In a word, unlimited, yet pointless passion. The ruling coalition is already drawing close to the moment of the truth, as UDMR refuses the Government re-organisation proposal. Tuesday Cotroceni talks confirmed once more, accepting there was any such need, the cleavage between the power and the opposition, actually between the president and reality.

Is anyone worried about the economic situation, the mounting lay-offs or the dramatic fall of living standards (already one of the lowest in the EU) because of price – especially food – rises?

No, our politicians have far more important things to deal with. The Romanian saying ‘The country is on fire, the old lady combs her hair’ perfectly describes the situation of many.
Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu: ‘I am the top-notch mayor who does everything legally’ the gentleman was saying upon opening the Basarab overpass. An acerb critic of Oprescu, Development Minister Elena Udrea was saying, on the same day, that she would ‘go up’ on the overpass to see reality.

Education Minister Daniel Funeriu, on the other hand, adopts the American style, telling pupils ‘yes, we can’, referring, of course, to the Romanian system of education. His advice to pupils: ‘Do not smoke and enjoy your youth!’

PSD President Victor Ponta was recently saying that, during the consultation talks, he would tell President Basescu that he would not like to see another president take off on a helicopter from Cotroceni, ‘chased away with booes and stones, like Ceausescu was’. Caught up in the political fight, Mr. Ponta apparently forgot that Nicolae Ceausescu took off from the top of the former PCR Central Committee building and not from Cotroceni.

PNL President Crin Antonescu, in turn, speaks about the mobilisation of his MPs: ‘There are situations where we will need to be very well mobilised.’ What the mobilisation of own MPs consists of is hard to figure but, if by that he means attendance of Parliament works, the mobilisation may refer to himself, one of the MPs with the largest number of recorded absences.

Recently elected as President of PNTCD (lead party of the former Democratic Convention that was in power between 1997 and 2000), Victor Ciorbea has another idea that is far from the immediate concrete reality: he wants to start a signature gathering campaign in support of a referendum for returning to the constitutional monarchy. We have to wonder if Ciorbea’s tactic is actually designed to bring PNTCD back to Parliament or to keep it as far away as possible.
Former presidential adviser and currently Labour Minister, Sebastian Lazaroiu has got us used to his colourful and informal statements. In a recent interview, he was saying: ‘Few people know that I have 50 per cent Hungarian blood in my veins. Thanks to my background in sociology, I am probably more open to inter-cultural dialogue and sensibilities of ethnic minorities or of any other nature. Therefore, no one can accuse be of Xenophobia.’ But why would anyone worry about the ‘ethnic’ composition of the gentleman’s blood?

On the other hand, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEP Laszlo Tokes, is still deeply anchored in the unsatisfying history of the Hungarian people… ‘A perfidious policy for the assimilation of Hungarians has been pursued in the last 90 years. Germans were sold for hard currency. The same happened to some of the Jews. Hungarians were forced to leave their fatherland, Transylvania. The Csángó are not allowed to use their mother tongue, and have even forgotten how to speak it. If this post-Trianon and post-Communism policy is not interrupted, we will perish,’ Tokes said. Need we remind that Mr. Tokes is a Romanian MEP, sent to the EP after free elections? That, in general, assimilation is more an issue for Romanians who represent a minority in the predominantly Hungarian counties? That the sale of the Germans and Jews took place in communism, when all Romanians were oppressed?

Like pre-school children, Romanian MEPs are always very argumentative. Annoyed that MEP Sogor Csaba (UDMR) was addressing the audience in Hungarian, MEP Ioan Enciu (PSD) shouted at him: ‘Hey, you over there! Speak in Romanian!’ Enciu said, afterwards, that his intervention was like between friends. The only problem is that the Hungarian did not appreciate the joke and complained to the EP leadership, making Enciu to write an explanatory letter and present public apologies. ‘I can assure you that I totally support the use of maternal language in the European Parliament debates and that I appreciate the Hungarian language and the Hungarian people.’ Enciu explains he is not a ‘chauvinistic person’ and that, on the contrary, he considers himself to be a supporter of diversity and minorities’ rights, a fact that, in his opinion, is proved by his entire activity in the European Parliament. The letter was addressed to EP President Jerzy Buzek. I wonder what Mr. Buzek thought about the incident.

The list of examples describing the Romanian political activity could easily go on. But we cannot forget about PM Emil Boc, who has led a campaign for the administrative-territorial re-organisation, claiming that the EU would not pay EUR 10 bln to Romania if the reform is not implemented. Contacted by a Bucharest TV station, the European Commission provided a few details: the territorial organisation of Romania is the prerogative of the Bucharest authorities, and it is not a condition for the disbursement of European funds.

We are a cheerful and always surprising country. It’s true that not all are pleasant…