Donald Trump’s unexpected victory in the U.S. presidential elections in not a danger but an opportunity for Romania, former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta wrote on Facebook.

“<<Politics must be about people,>> Donald Trump often said in his campaign. Not about what <<should>>, or <<what we think is best>>, or about <<the people is stupid and misinformed and doesn’t understand what is should vote>>, or about what the analysts say and the <<institutions>> want,” Ponta wrote.

“The People or the <<System>>? To this question the Americans have answered! Who hasn’t understood what happened at Brexit doesn’t understand now either. And will not understand, and here I talk about the Propaganda in Romania,” Ponta added.

“The People always knows best. My opinion is clear – Trump’s election is not a danger for Romania (as the Securistic Porpaganda keeps threatening us). It’s an opportunity that we can use for our own good (if we are up to it),” he said. “I wish to think that we too can be like the Americans.”

Ponta ended his post with a joke: “Someone just told me the first joke after the U.S. elections – George Soros already asked for political asylum in Romania.”

Victor Ponta’s mentor Adrian Nastase, the first former Prime Minister who spent time in jail for corruption, also commented the result of the U.S. elections. He expects a rearrangement in the U.S. relations with Europe, including Romania.

“It’s obvious that the team that coordinated the relation with Romania will change. Joe Biden and Victoria Nuland will disappear and, with them, the redundant themes that we had all these years – democracy, human rights, rule of law – a mantra that the democrats have often used in different countries to roast the political class in those countries (…) all these will be replaced by a more pragmatic approach,” Nastase told local Agerpres.

“Of course, this also depends on our capacity not to let the U.S. politics in Romania be run by characters like Mark Gitenstein, who obviously wanted to position themselves as sort of governors for Romania. These things must change and I’m convinced that, if we know how to talk with dignity, we will be able to establish a functional, loyal connection, based on mutual interests,” he added.

Former Romanian President Traian Basescu thinks that although Donald Trump will likely make a personal mark on American politics, the U.S. will not abandon its allies. “I don’t think Romania has any reasons to worry,” Basescu told Mediafax.

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Comment: The lack of spin in Romanian politics

editor@romania-insider.com