Comment: The second round at the National Arena, the USL takes on the EPP

Yesterday, the Romanians tired and upset after our national team were dreadfully beaten by the Netherlands, had the opportunity to see another match, the political one. We could declare the 17th of October 2012 “the day of one unusual match – USL versus EPP”. (news about both events here and here)

What did I appreciate as unusual? The EPP Congress was a very important political event especially for the center right parties of Europe; however it was only a normal political congress for the EPP, but it was a congress that happened to be here in Romania. The USL meeting was the usual political launch of an electoral campaign. So, the both events were usual in a normal country, but is Romania a normal country? The political perspective, at least, is not. The importance of the both events was exaggerated by the political actors and, of course by the media. Each party tried to send a message, with more or less professionalism, at both events. The Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) wanted to portray itself to Europeans as the only credible party from Romania, as a party with a European vision and with very powerful friends. Instead the Social Liberal Union (USL) wanted to demonstrate that it is the only political movement that speaks for the Romanian people. Both actors tried to manipulate (sometimes very unprofessionally) the people, giving them empty illusions. One gave the illusion of the support (financially, morally, etc) of the European Community, the other gave the illusion of the “power of the powerless” to use the title of Havel’s book. Above all, both political families demonstrated that they cannot understand a very simple, common fact. In a globalized world, as part of the European and the World groups, with a global economic, financial, political, social and human resources markets it is necessary to maintain a balance between the power of the people and the influence of foreign economic, financial and political groups, so a good balance between internal and external policies is needed and what I saw yesterday is only a deepening gap between these two components. As a normal citizen I can ask : How can the USL imagine governing without a good external image? How can the PDL consider governing without the Romanian people, based only on external support? I cannot understand. Why didn’t the PDL understand/accept the message of the 7.5 million people? Why didn’t the USL understand the European messages regarding the anti Basescu “blitzkrieg”? Why do vanity and lack of logical thinking dominate the Romanian politic environment? Why is politics in Romania so emotionally focused?