Voters ask Simion to Make "Romania Great Again"

Over the past four decades, Western democracies have seen both winners and losers. What we see today, increasingly clearly, is the reaction of those who had the most to lose from the profound economic and social transformations. It is a relative reality: almost everyone had something to gain, but some gained much more than others.

The West of 1980 was not poor. People had access to housing, could afford a car, one or two vacations a year, and enjoyed stable jobs, affordable healthcare, and a generally safe life. The streets were quiet, and confidence in the future was the norm, not the exception.

Meanwhile, the world had changed. Those who had businesses, property, or stock stocks prospered spectacularly. New technologies, accelerated globalization, and mass immigration have brought immense benefits-but almost exclusively to a minority. The vast majority of the population, instead, has chosen to carry a smartphone in their pocket-a symbol of modernity, but not necessarily of real progress in quality of life.

While the elites have become increasingly secure in their future-often becoming rentiers, with children in the most expensive universities-the middle class has thinned. The rich no longer have to work, and their children are starting life from an incomparably more advantageous position. In just a few decades, their fortunes have not doubled or tripled, but have multiplied even ten or twenty times.

In 2025, most Western citizens work harder than their parents to maintain the same standard of living. Housing, quality education, healthcare, and street safety have become harder to achieve. In many cities, crime is significantly higher. In parallel, the privileged bring in their workforce from poorer countries - housekeepers, nannies, caregivers - and the natives compete with them for wages and jobs. There is also real pressure in access to housing, hospitals and schools. While this dynamic benefits capital, it has led to the economic and social marginalization of a considerable part of the population.

It is therefore not surprising that more and more voters refuse to accept the status quo. Their vote becomes a form of protest, a claim for a lost dignity. They are not asking for the impossible, but only for a decent living and equal opportunities. There are no simple solutions, but it is clear that people are demanding changes - sometimes radical - in the hope of a fairer future.

Romania, integrated into the Western world through its membership of the European Union, is also experiencing these tensions. Many Romanians work hard, at home or abroad, while a privileged minority - often illegitimately connected to political power - benefits from a system that is favorable to them. Social inequality is not just a problem of perception, but a fundamental one.

The system, in the West, but also in Romania, must be reformed. Otherwise, it will be removed, stage by stage, through voting. Citizens are no longer willing to accept injustice as a given. And voters, this time, are perhaps more right than leaders are willing to admit.