Daniel David, the rector of UBB, the largest university in the country, sends several messages to the voters. He understands the frustration of those who voted against the system and conveys to them that destroying the country is not a solution. He asks those who did not vote to wake up and save democracy and Romania.
Daniel David, rector of UBB, asks those who did not vote to “wake up”. PHOTO: Personal archive
“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that, respecting other people’s options, I’m for a Euro-Atlantic Romania and that I’ve been supporting this country’s trajectory in the public space for a long time“, claimed the rector of Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB), Daniel David.
The psychologist weighed the two alternatives that Romanians have when voting:
“Euro-Atlantic Romania, if well realized, is a Romania based on science and religion, expressed in modern democratic institutions and the church, which effectively ensures our personal rights and the well-being of all (not just some). The alternative is obscurantism and superstition, expressed in anti-democratic conspiratorial structures that support pseudoscience and, over time, through the attack on science and religion, in poverty and isolation“.
The UBB rector sent a message to each of the three large groups of voters in Romania that he identified: (1) a pool with a collectivist psychocultural profile (the area often more autochthonist and more suspicious of Western institutions); (2) a pool with a psychocultural profile of the autonomous individual in the emancipation phase (often anti-system in the Romanian educational context and the situation of democracy at the international level) and (3) a pool with a psychocultural profile of the more emancipated autonomous individual (often in connection dominant institutional with the western space).
Message for emancipated Romanians: “let’s leave arrogance”
“To those already emancipated and connected to the Euro-Atlantic institutions, I say let’s stop the arrogance of criticizing and giving lessons to others (even everyone) and the power struggles between us. The “lessons of the elite” – as seen in the US election – have had no effect, and perhaps even motivated the opposite behavior in the mass of the general population. No one stops us from expressing ourselves and being active, but let’s do it for a good cause, not for our public image, let’s do it more quietly, starting with those around us, with public “fuss” only when it’s absolutely necessary. We don’t have to convince ourselves of the Euro-Atlantic path, but we have to talk to other Romanians and convince them with decency for a Euro-Atlantic Romania!” – explained David on his personal blog.
The Rector also has a message for those with a traditional commitment, as my grandparents were: “I understand their frustration and fear about the present and the future, but the way is Euro-Atlantic Romania! However, Euro-Atlantic Romania must make itself better known to them, as the intellectuals who thought Greater Romania they could only do this with the people by their side, a people who, when explained to them and valued as a winner of the change, understood and supported them. We cannot have a Euro-Atlantic Romania without the traditional part of the country!”
Message for anti-system voters
“To those who are anti-system (and I have many good friends here), many from the Romanian diaspora, I say that I understand their frustration and hatred towards corrupt institutions, with poor functioning or forms without foundation, which often turned some into losers, while others were winners, in the process of Euro-Atlantic modernization of the country. I think they were heard, but the way is Euro-Atlantic Romania! Let’s not destroy the country with bad institutions. Let’s put together good content in the Euro-Atlantic institutions so that we don’t have any more losers of modernization”David wrote on his blog.
The Rector also has a message for ethnic communities (other than Romanians): “in Euro-Atlantic Romania, being a good Romanian citizen does not only mean being a good ethnic Romanian. You can be a good Romanian citizen without being ethnically Romanian. Maybe some now react emotionally well to the attack on the mediocre political “system” or to anti-European themes, but let’s be careful that in the context of misunderstood “ancestorism” and promoted by alternatives to Euro-Atlantic Romania, in its final essence there is no place for Romanian citizens who they are not ethnic Romanians either! Also transversally, they remind the church and people of faith that obscurantism (mysticism) sees an enemy not only in science, but also in religion and the church, both of which confuse his plans to change the world through irrational, mystical and bizarre ideas.”
Message for those who did not participate in the elections
Beyond the Romanians already involved in the fate of the country, there is almost half of the country that did not participate in the elections, says David, and that mustendure for the protection of democracy and Euro-Atlantic Romania.”
The rector of UBB declared himself fully in favor of the ideas from the recent press release of the Romanian Academy, which says: “We do not agree with any conspiratorial manifestation, which endangers democratic freedoms and the safety of the Romanian state. In this difficult moment for Romania, the Romanian Academy addresses the Romanian society, the state institutions, the media and all the democratic forces in our country with an exhortation to maturity, lucidity and discernment, for the responsible and solidary defense of democratic values, in order not to endanger the future of our children .”
In his final message for Romanians, David says: “let’s rebuild well and for all, not just for some, the well-being of Euro-Atlantic Romania. When you have to choose between (1) those who have bad, conspiratorial and anti-European intentions for the country and know how to implement them, and (2) those who have good, Euro-Atlantic intentions, but perhaps do not yet have all the necessary skills for a Euro-Atlantic Romania, having however willingness to learn from those who know some things better, the way is only one: We choose people with good intentions, who will learn in the process to implement them well for the well-being of all, not just for of some, in a Euro-Atlantic Romania! Then we will have time for critical analyzes and normalizations.“
UBB: “Vote for a European Romania”
The Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (UBB) sent a press release entitled “UBB supports the vote for European Romania in the presidential elections!”
“UBB, through its scientific, multicultural-multilingual and multi-confessional profile, is campaigning for a European Romania based on science and religion, expressed in modern democratic institutions and the church, which effectively ensures personal rights and the well-being of life for all of us. Conspiracy and anti-democratic structures, based on obscurantism, occultism and superstition, can only generate division, suffering and poverty“, the press release states.
In this context, we support and resonate with the recent message of the Romanian Academy (November 2024), namely: “…We do not agree with any conspiratorial manifestation, which endangers democratic freedoms and the safety of the Romanian state. In this difficult moment for Romania, the Romanian Academy addresses the Romanian society, the state institutions, the media and all the democratic forces in our country with an exhortation to maturity, lucidity and discernment, for the responsible and solidary defense of democratic values, in order not to endanger the future of our children” – the press release states.
The UBB officials refer to the Message of His Beatitude Father Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, addressed to the participants of the 27th Pan-Orthodox Conference of the Representatives of the Orthodox Churches and Holy Diocese regarding heresies and para-religions, with the theme Faces of contemporary occultism (Corinth , Greece, November 2-4, 2015), which said then, among other things, that “…these occult, syncretistic and confused solutions amplify the spiritual crisis even more, they don’t solve it. In such a situation and such a context, the Orthodox Church, which is the “pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3, 15), must intensify its pastoral and social mission, through prayer and action, by informing and helping its members.”
“We are convinced that other religious cults have a similar attitude towards obscurantism/conspiracy and the occult” – it is stated in the press release.
Finally, UBB supports and reinforces the exhortation of the rector of the University, prof. university Dr. Daniel David, for our academic community – students, administrative and academic staff – and for the entire Romanian society: “…Ahow to rebuild well and for all, not just for some, the well-being of European Romania. When you have to choose between (1) those who have bad, conspiratorial and anti-European intentions for the country and know how to implement them, and (2) those who have good, Euro-Atlantic intentions, but perhaps do not yet have all the necessary skills for a Euro-Atlantic Romania, having however willingness to learn from those who know some things better, the way is only one: we choose people with good intentions, who will learn in the process to implement them well for the well-being of all, not just for of some, in a Euro-Atlantic Romania!”
