The Romania – Ukraine match at Euro 2024 was much more than just an important sporting victory. It was a moment that I would compare to the moment when a withered flower, almost dead in dry and cracked soil, receives water, you see how it absorbs it and happily sends a scent.
Romanians had few reasons for national, common satisfaction. We are led by weak politicians, with poor results, full entry into Schengen remains an objective, transitioning to the euro is not even a well-defined plan, we have no national project, we are divided and ashamed of our nationality, even inclined towards self-flagellation.
Sports have always compensated for a chronic frustration, even in Ceaușescu's time. And there have been moments of grace with Simona Halep, with David Popovici. But the great expectations and disappointments have been linked to the "king sport."
At the stadium in Munich, then in the center of Bucharest, it was more than a mobilization of supporters at a national team match. It was a moment of grace of a clean and healthy national sentiment, a shared joy, a common objective and the taste of victory that unites, not divides, and which is welcomed, with different intensities of course, by both football fans and people with no attraction to football (like the undersigned).
The fact that towards the end of the match, in the 80th minute, the Romanian anthem resounded in the stadium, spontaneously sung by tens of thousands of voices, was truly an exceptional moment, showing how much we need a common joy, reasons for national pride, experiences that bind us together.
The irony of fate made Romania's opponents be representatives of a people who have long had problems with national identity (for different reasons, of course) and who are going through a tragic moment of unity, facing a heinous aggression.
Although they fail to give this people reasons for satisfaction and unity, common objectives and shared joys, politicians felt the need to exploit the moment.
Prime Minister Ciolacu, a possible PSD presidential candidate, posed in the stands and basked in the crowd before the match.
Nicolae Ciuca, PNL candidate, took a photo in front of the TV.
Even Klaus Iohannis interrupted his uninterrupted vacation for a brief message on Facebook.
Everyone is trying to associate themselves with a bit of this victory and its good feeling to transfer something onto their own image and the votes that will follow.
Although they are the main culprits for the rare reasons for joy and national pride of this country, for patriotism being in a crisis proportional to the size of the exodus and being partly replaced by a squalid and frustrated nationalism.
And if we were to go further, what was the secret of the national team's victory in Munich? The secret of any success: professionalism and dedication, skill and soul.
How many of the politicians who stuck their heads in the match photo have offered, are capable of offering such things to Romania?