The Absurdity at the Gates of Cotroceni

After the results of the first round of the presidential elections, I was quite convinced that George Simion would win. It seemed to me that most of the votes received by Victor Ponta would go to Simion, to which half of Crin Antonescu's votes would be added, and I did not see how Nicuşor Dan could compensate with millions of votes. I had begun or was trying to get used to the idea that Simion would be the president of Romania and I was struggling to imagine what the world would look like after his installation at the Cotroceni Palace. Around me, there was frequent talk of isolation. "They will close the borders", was a pressing fear, which I heard several times. "Okay, but we are in the European Union", I told myself, considering that this could not happen in a member country. However, to leave the Union, a national referendum is needed, and I remembered that I had recently seen a survey according to which over 90% of Romanians, regardless of political option, support continuing the European path.

George Simion's appearance last week on a French television station was enlightening. Simion began to say, in a combination of French and Romanian, that President Emmanuel Macron has dictatorial tendencies, that the French should stop changing the sex of their children, that France as a Christian and European nation will no longer exist, and several other such ideas that offended and amused the French moderators.

It was the most embarrassing appearance of a Romanian politician on a foreign television station that I have ever seen. Suddenly I had two revelations.

The first - that a national referendum is not necessarily needed for a country to leave the European Union. Two or three such representations are enough to almost eliminate it from the EU.

Second - it seemed impossible to me that someone could win the elections in a country in the world, especially in a European one, with such performances. It seemed against the laws of nature, of the Universe. It would have been absurd. I calmed down, Simion was sure to lose and suddenly I wished Sunday would come sooner, for the whole story to end once and for all.

Nicuşor Dan will be the president of Romania for the next five years. I have no prescient abilities, so I don't know what Romanian society will look like in 2030, but the next years are shaping up to be very difficult from an economic and geopolitical point of view. Now, the fact that millions of people have now voted, deceived by a distorted past and deluding themselves with a paradisiacal future, worries me. Their dissatisfaction will grow. There will be even more of them. Won't they be the majority?