Romania is increasingly resembling the failed family from Sam Shepard’s play, Buried Child. A horrific event silently gnaws at the marriage of Dodge and Halie, destroying everyone’s lives.
The issue is that, after 1990, Romania has gone through several horrific events that have marked the destiny of millions of people, and the authorities have failed to provide answers about what happened, what the causes were, the effects, and who is responsible.
It happened during the Revolution, during the miner’s strikes, and it happened six months ago when our country was very close, following a hybrid attack from Russia, to fall once again under Moscow’s influence.
For decades, around the events of the '90s, a mythology was built where facts intertwined with manipulation and conspiracy theories.
In the absence of serious investigations, trials, and judicial decisions, a cancer of mistrust has emerged and spread throughout society.
Following the cancellation of last year's elections, we are once again facing the danger of burying another child in the backyard and living our lives as if nothing had happened, while suspicion, secrecy, and corruption will continue to erode relationships between institutions and citizens.
Ciolacu spent 13 billion euros to be defeated by a charlatan
Marcel Ciolacu, from the position of prime minister, believed he could launch and manage an infallible strategy that would lead him to the Cotroceni Palace.
He and those around him relied on the fact that money directly brings votes.
Starting in 2023, the messages conveyed by the social democrats were targeted towards pensioners, public sector employees, and mayors. All were related to increasing incomes and financing projects through which mayors could regain their elections.
Despite hundreds of warnings from experts that the budget deficit could cause a major imbalance, nothing mattered, Marcel Ciolacu bet 13 billion euros, money spent from the government's reserve fund, to reach the Cotroceni Palace.
His strategy was a simple one, commonly used in Romania - we buy now, we figure out how to pay later.
But his very childish, unsubstantial, unanalyzed, and untested plan pushed the country to the brink, and he lost the elections, becoming the second most hated politician, in competition with Klaus Iohannis.
Ciolacu was defeated in the presidential elections by a charlatan who speaks in riddles, under Russia's control, and who won the first round of the electoral confrontation through an intense TikTok campaign, financed by Kremlin networks from both the country and abroad.
Calin Georgescu did not increase salaries and pensions, did not take out loans, did not even drive a car through Romania, his victory showing how much superficiality and irresponsibility there was at the leadership level in Romania.
Instead of understanding what it means to have a prime minister aware that a military conflict is unfolding at the border, Ciolacu chased after rainbows and fell into all the traps set by Moscow's agents, even transferring votes to George Simion, the leader of AUR, the preferred candidate of the former PSD chief for the presidential final.
How was this possible?
Today, after narrowly escaping a bullet, with it not being very clear how big the security breach was, what was lost through it, how decisions were made, and who is responsible, the new political regime, elected after the cancellation of last year's electoral process, has shown no sign of beginning to seek answers or taking action to uncover the truth, despite campaign promises.
Together with a group of seven former US ambassadors to Romania, we publicly urged Romanians to reject Putin's candidate. We could not remain silent and allow Russia's blatantly false propaganda to go unchallenged.
Mark Gitenstein, Adrian Zuckerman, and Jim Rosapepe, former US ambassadors to Romania, in an article published by Politico.eu
From public communication, or rather the lack thereof, it is understood that a new child's grave is being dug, over which soil, time, and oblivion will be laid, while the family crumbles, consumed by questions.
In these hot summer days, the entire public agenda is occupied by discussions around cutting bonuses, budgetary protests, and taxes, important discussions that still mask the institutional incapacity to solve essential problems, which destroy trust and create major rifts in society.
The question "How was this possible?" lingers, and the longer an answer is delayed, the more vulnerable we are to future challenges.
The war has not moved away from the border, and from all the signals given by the Kremlin, Romania remains an important target. As long as we do not know what hit us, we will not know how to defend ourselves.
"...Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine with tanks in 2022. But many do not know that in 2024, he invaded Romania — with tweets. In both cases, he failed – for now," wrote Mark Gitenstein, Adrian Zuckerman, Jim Rosapepe, three former US ambassadors to Romania, in an article published by politico.eu.
The fact that a prime minister and a president brought Romania to the brink, referring to Marcel Ciolacu and Klaus Iohannis, both economically and in terms of national security, is related to the guilty silence surrounding the buried children in the last 30 years, without any public authority daring to say why, how, and who killed them.