There are no tanks rolling down the streets of Bucharest, no one has been arrested or exiled, public gatherings are still taking place in the city centre. It’s Code Orange again – but not because of the political turmoil.
It’s the crazy weather once more – this time the scorching heat, not the heavy snowing and blizzards.
The ‘civilised world’ – the EU (especially Germany) + the USA & others – have expressed their concerns and preoccupation with the sad fact that their beloved orange hero of 2004 was wrongfully (so they claim) impeached a few days ago.
These high priests of democracy decry the fact that Băsescu could have been ‘executed’ by votes in the Romanian Parliament. But it’s all a hysterical reaction.
Votes are no bullets. These are the same votes that have recently installed an Islamist (albeit moderate) president in Egypt, the same that sent spirited Nicolas Sarkozy to early retirement, and the same that will probably oust Angela Merkel from power in 2013.
Happen what may – a bigger evil than Băsescu can always befall Romania; but this is no reason for not removing the current evil – I am siding with those that, on July 29, will vote YES to confirm his impeachment.
He has never been the honest fighter for democracy, the defender of an independent judiciary, the committed supporter of the rule of law, nor the reformist whom the foreign media kept portaying over the past decade.
He has been an authoritarian, abusive, antidemocratic, and arrogant president who could never put up with the imperfections of Romania’s Constitution.
As a matter of fact, back in 2004, he had promised that he wouldn’t be an neutral president, but a kind of “player-President.” And he surely kept his promise, and played aggressively.
Whether a man like him, considered to be a creation of the former Communist secret services, has already played all his trumps is difficult to say. Used to steering a 306-meter long oil tanker, Băsescu is skilled at turning adverse odds in his favour.
Exposing the plagiarism of the current Prime Minister only hastened his impeachment, although it wasn’t a decisive blow to his adversaries, that would assure the survival of his moribund orange regime.
The average voter doesn’t know what plagiarism is. But Băsescu may still have some aces left in his sleeves.
His orange supporters are enraged, desperately trying to convinge the Sublime Porte of 2012 – which is not Ottoman Istanbul anymore, but Brussels and Washington DC – that a coup d’état has taken place in Romania, thus a referendum would be illegitimate.
Some of their arguments are valid, yet so are many of those against Băsescu’s rule. He was not the enlightened reformist of democratic institutions often described by foreign fans and internal worshippers, but a rather constant saboteour of democracy.
Most of all, irrespective whether he did it constitutionally or not, he is a shameless liar – and his irresponsible lies amount to (if not even surpass) the gravity of high treason.
Out of his abundance of lies, it’s worth noting only those with catastrophical economic consequences. In the autumn of 2008, as the global economic crisis began breaking havoc elsewhere in the world, he said Romania would not be affected.
Even more so, he said the wages of teachers should be increased by 50% and accused the liberal Prime Minister of refusing to provide the funds for his irresponsible claims.
In the meantime, his orange clique (PDL) was promising a 6.5% percent economic growth for 2009. At the end of that year, the economy would contract by 7.2%.
A bit later, in January 2009, he said that Romania would not need an IMF loan. In May 2009, Romania loaned 20 billions euros from the IMF and the European Commission.
Where did the money go? In the coffers of foreign banks, in the pockets of ‘orange’ companies, but surely nowhere in the benefit of Romanians who refuse to bite the bullet.
Although prescribed as a life-or-death necessity, with obstinance and cynicism spit at the ‘lazy Romanians’, it is still arguable whether Romania was in a such desperate need of a bailout. Or was it more an experimetal medicine forced down our throats by Doctor Băsescu?
A year later, in May 2010, Băsescu subjected Romanians to a fierce austerity experiment – a 25% wage cut in the public sector, and a 5% VAT increase.
Some may argue that any of these are but inoffensive (to the degree they are ‘constitutional’) lies and a kind of inherent mistakes of democracy that can’t be punished in any democratic society.
What if they are not as innocent as we are told they are? Băsescu’s orange gang was one of cunning profiteers, thus most of his (and his regime’s) apparent mistakes look like sheer premeditated crimes.
A yesman of Washington DC, of Brussels, and of Berlin (where some of his most voiceful supporters are heard these days), he did nothing in favour of Romania – only in favour of the orange myriad of interests that he patronized.
He is a fake hero of democracy, an indecent patron of a corrupt regime whom most voters in Romania (hopefully – it’s risky to say anything more these days) don’t want as president anymore.
There’s no lack of easily corruptible yesmen in Romania, therefore no one in Washington DC, Brussels or Berlin should worry about Băsescu being thrown into the dustbin of history.
Romanians should be as concerned about the democratic world’s crocodile tears for the fate of Romanian democracy as those cynics in the aforementioned capitals were worried when Băsescu was pushing this impoverished and abused nation through the steepest chasm of austerity ever seen in the EU.
[For all the posts on this blog go to/Pentru toate postările de pe acest blog mergi la: Contents/Cuprins]
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