A strong shock was needed to clearly see the toxic reality in which we have immersed ourselves: discredited party leaders, an omni-absent president, powerless intelligence services, paralyzed polling institutions, hysterical press, and failed analyses.
Practically, everything was dismantled, and the ripple effect brought an entire society to its knees, defeated by the shattering of its own illusions in which it had been deeply entrenched for over a decade.
After the economic crisis of 2008 – 2010, we kept drifting away from economic, moral, and democratic rigor, contributing to the shaping and fermenting of a phenomenon that erupted with astonishing force on the evening of November 24, 2024.
Whether we like it or not, we have reached a point where the eternal ideological struggle between currents, doctrines, and political ideologies is being settled by a sulfurous lust that has taken power in the last three years, with the endorsement of a president tired after ten years of futile struggles, as well as a society lulled by the illusion of stability at the expense of competition of ideas, solutions, and strategies.
If everything had gone according to plan, we would have witnessed a reconciliation of factions after the simulated conflict during the election period and the confiscation of political, economic, and social effervescence for the next four years.
It took a Frankenstein-like character with a common name, but easily confused, with resolutely pronounced principles, but painfully poisonous, with sporadic appearances in ambiguous environments, but with millions of followers, to make us realize the true extent of the power of this phenomenon that has struck the entire society, namely, ignorance.
All attention has turned to the soldier's novels, the baker's jets, and the ultra's ramblings, and against this backdrop, two candidates have somehow been left out of the power games, but not lacking the will to come from behind with strength and display their true power at the right moment and place.
In an instant, all calculations were overturned, all advantages were dismantled, and all expectations were nullified. Those who were hardly taken into account, those barely mentioned in statistics, and those who understood that victory in elections is measured in votes, not in strategic dodges during debates, tiptoeing through television studios, or clever words thrown over the shoulder to the cohorts of journalists crowded in the corridors of Power, have moved forward.
Fortunately, the orientations of the two remaining in the race are diametrically opposed: West – East, democracy – autocracy, integration – isolation.
Although the bullet did not just graze our ears like in bigger houses, we still felt its burn on our temples, and now, suddenly, it seems that we have woken up to a reality that was somewhat predictable but hard to accept.
We needed a fundamental shake-up to realize the ravages that a manipulated communication tool can cause, to reintroduce programs on the horrors committed by the Legionnaires, or to understand the magnitude of the apocalyptic phenomenon depicted in the headlines of world publications about the situation in Romania.
After all, we can see the glass half full too... who could have imagined that in one night we could get rid of three toxic characters – Ciucă, Ciolacu, Iohannis – who have fully contributed to the chaos in which we have sunk?
The tumult of events does not allow us time to lick our wounds, to complain, or to ponder too much on which direction to choose.
We need to move quickly, coordinated and efficiently in a progressive direction, to overcome the moment and start building solid, realistic, and as close as possible to the needs of society.
We are now paying for the delays with special pensions, administrative reorganization, and the implementation of major reforms. The Georgescu phenomenon, devastating in the imminent cancellation of all efforts made from the revolution until now, must be seen as a trigger for the potential reestablishment of values in society, for connecting governance, in all its forms, to the real needs of the population, and for creating a climate conducive to accelerated development.
In the still charged geopolitical context, we easily realize that the lack of investments in defense makes the country vulnerable from the outside, but at the same time, the lack of allocations for education makes the country vulnerable from within.
Whether this malevolent Georgescu, manipulated TikTok, or the Ciolacu-Ciucă-Iohannis trio of deceit, individual and societal ignorance creates massive gaps in the discernment of citizens to follow the path towards democracy and progress, not towards autarky and stagnation.
Now, in the eleventh hour, reforms, plans, and strategies are being shaped for the governance of the country in the upcoming period.
Let's hope we don't get carried away and fall to the other side: down with all, but less with ours, without their criminals because ours are better, or #resist, but let us be in power.
If political, governmental, economic, and social reform does not begin with the reform of the political class, it won't be long before a series of hopes collapse again, and we return to where we started. The sequestration of power in parties and circles of influence is the starting point of failure.
If politicians do not understand that a country is governed through skill and knowledge, not through obedience and cronyism, then we will fall back into the spiral of mockery, and the effects will be commensurate.
Furthermore, a strong society means strong institutions. If we again subject ministries and agencies to the roulette of distribution based on political algorithms, we are doomed to governance based on interests rather than public strategies.
As much as we may be lenient, we cannot delude ourselves that the current holders of portfolios in Environment or Agriculture, to name just a few examples at random, represent an accumulation of knowledge that the smooth functioning of a nation cannot bypass.
Strong institutions mean efficient, flexible, and well-structured public strategies. What we have on the table now is a disgrace for any professional in the field, an insult to specialized literature, and a slap in the face of future generations, who will fully feel the results of an anticipated failure from now on.
And for everything to work well, we need an economy that avoids pro-cyclical policies, functioning on debt, and throwing money out of helicopters. Perhaps we will wake up and understand that rewarding work performed depends on the level of productivity, not on the goodwill of populist politicians.
Let's turn the Georgescu phenomenon into the Georgescu accident, learn something from this shock, gather our strengths, and, with wisdom, move forward towards what we all hoped for in December '89: democracy, freedom, prosperity. The rest is effort.