For 14 months we have been waiting for the report. That promised report, explanatory, with evidence, with a clear structure, to tell us why the presidential elections were canceled and where, how, and to what extent Russia intervened.
A report that would put an end to conspiracy theories and restore some of the shattered trust. It didn’t come.
Instead, another report came. Not ours, not from Romanian institutions, but from a committee of Republicans in the US Congress, led by a declared fan of Donald Trump, who vehemently accuses that the elections lost by his idol to Joe Biden were fraudulent.
As expected, the American report made waves, was circulated on networks, selectively translated, and used as a political weapon: not Russia, but the European Commission would have meddled in the elections in Romania.
Nicușor Dan took to Facebook to explain what we already knew: that Romania is not the target of that report. He is right. Obviously, it's not. Although Romania is mentioned 113 times in the document, the focus is not on Romania at all. The real and significant focus is on the European Union.
It is an ideological attack on the EU, orchestrated by Trumpists who loathe Brussels for very concrete reasons: because it fines American tech giants and because it refused to play by Trump's rules – whether we're talking about Greenland or the so-called "Peace Council," which no major European power took seriously. This is the key through which we can see this report. The rest of us are just pawns on the board.
The members of that committee sincerely believe or are entirely interested in allowing extremism as a form of freedom of expression and want to export this philosophy to Europe.
They want a ruleless EU, without the capacity to intervene when social platforms become political weapons. From this perspective, yes, the president and the prime minister are right: the report is not "about Romania."
But here is where our problem begins.
Because the report hits us. Hard. It hits the legitimacy of the decision to cancel the elections, it hits public trust, and indirectly, it hits the president's legitimacy.
And the argument put forth by Ilie Bolojan – that Nicușor Dan was voted by millions of Romanians – is extremely dangerous.
And the man who says we have chips in Pepsi was also voted by around 2 million Romanians. What do we do with that logic? Since when does the number of votes replace explanations, evidence, and transparency?
Democracy doesn't work as a numerical talisman that you pull out whenever you're asked "why."
Yes, Nicușor Dan is right when he says that "Russia's interference in electoral processes in Europe, including in Romania, has been reported in official reports by NATO, the European Union, and the UK Government." Correct. Absolutely correct. But when will our report come?
In this tense context, today the president felt the need to send another message that the Americans are still with us. The proof - photos with American tanks from the military exercises these days at Smârdan, in which Romanian and US forces participated. This "shows that the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States of America is strong and continuously consolidating."
The message is correct and necessary geopolitically, but it cannot replace the lack of internal answers: military exercises do not substitute explanations for citizens, nor the promised report on the annulment of the elections.
The same Nicușor Dan promised that the report would be ready in January. We are in February.
Meanwhile, citizens need answers. And the administration is visibly making an effort not to provide them.
We don't know why. Political calculation? Fear? Incompetence? The result is the same: trust is eroding even further.
While the state remains silent, the other side does not. Supporters of "backtothesender" are organizing to file criminal complaints that can turn into cases. They are building a coherent narrative, fueled precisely by this void of official explanations.
Time is not working in Nicușor Dan's favor. Not at all. And the polls show that best. AUR remains at 40%, despite the continuous blunders that George Simion is still perfectly capable of.
Institutional silence is the radicals' best ally.
No, the Republican report is not about Romania. But the absence of the Romanian report is very much about Romania. About how fragile our democratic trust is and how easily it can be shattered.