The result recorded after the 1st round of the 2024 presidential elections puts Romania in an unprecedented situation. Politicians begin to speak, timidly, of the mistakes committed and too few solutions. The president, “the man who has to answer a lot of questions”, continues to be silent.
Klaus Iohannis, without reaction after the announcement of the results of the 1st round PHOTO: Profimedia
More than 24 hours after it became official that the independent Călin Georgescu and the USR representative Elena Lasconi will be the two candidates between whom the Romanians will choose in the 2nd round, nothing has been heard from the Presidential Administration. Klaus Iohannis, a “tenant” in Cotroceni for two terms, had no reaction whatsoever to the danger facing Romanians with the completely unexpected rise of the pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu. The only output was a response to a press request, in which it is specified that the president did not receive information regarding Călin Georgescu.
The prime minister still in office, the big loser of these elections, also avoids positioning, and his “lieutenants” say with subject matter and preaching that the issue will only be addressed after Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
All this time, the candidate appeared as if from nowhere, although the recipe for his rise is strikingly similar to what AUR achieved four years ago, he follows his strategy and keeps an entire Romania with its eyes fixed on the phone and its minds ready for slogans. Traditional media have, it is proven, reached their limits in terms of conveying messages, so the question remains: what is to be done?
Why is Klaus Iohannis silent?
“Klaus Iohannis, in order to have an opinion, should admit that he is the main culprit for the situation that was created on Sunday. His lordship created the conditions for Romania to be almost ungovernable and for one of the enemies of the Euro-Atlantic orientation to be in first place in the 1st round of the Presidential Elections”, says political scientist Ioan Stanomir, professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Bucharest. Most likely it will not happen that the president still in office will admit his mistake, because “his lordship is not capable of such an examination of conscience”, adds Stanomir.
Iohannis is seen today by a significant part of Romanian society as “the gravedigger of hopes from 10 years ago”. “He did everything he could to compromise the mandate that the Romanians entrusted to him twice. He is someone who by his conduct has caused a unique situation in the last 20 years: a candidate with a chance to win, who is hostile to the West, something unprecedented in our country.” adds the political scientist.
Iohannis should be charged with more than silence. The obligation to see currents in society was the president’s, and things could be anticipated, given the president’s means, the political scientist explains.
“These issues could be anticipated, because anyone who has an account on Tik Tok can notice that the online environment on Tik Tok has a completely different dynamic and that in that online environment frustrations, resentments, some of them justified, can take a large special He could, for example, have seen and told the people from the intelligence services whom he loves so much, that television audiences are no longer what they were and that you go to Mr. Gâdea’s set at Antena 3 for nothing , because people don’t get their information from there anymore. The world is sitting in the corner scrolling on Tik-Tok. All these things are directly attributable to his lordship. He is the man who has to answer a lot of questions regarding the way in which, especially in his second term, he practically chose to be not only absent, but toxic for this country.” says Stanomir.
The effect of President Iohannis’ inaction was directly seen in the party’s electoral score “turned it into an annex” and which only after the extremely cold shower received on Sunday chooses a leadership that is no longer associated with Klaus Iohannis, he says.
The election calendar, “a recipe for disaster”
The string of things that led to Sunday’s result is much longer. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu should recognize his own mistakes, the one that cost him the most, assesses Ioan Stanomir, being the inability to admit that he was on that private plane with the owners of the Nordis company.
The inefficiency of governance, which has turned us into Europe’s champions of rising prices and inflation, and the quality of leadership are also among the mistakes made by politicians, the specialist mentions.
“I would also ask you to note that this calendar that PSD and PNL have thought up for the elections is a recipe for disaster, it places the parliamentary elections between the two rounds and creates the conditions for demobilization among the parties that are no longer represented in the round presidential”, warns the political scientist.
“Elena Lasconi has no interest in antagonizing the PSD electorate”
Elena Lasconi, the candidate who practically kicked Marcel Ciolacu out of the race, leaving the followers of the FSN for the first time since 1990 without a candidate in the 2nd round of the presidential elections, seems to be fighting almost alone at this moment, given that, for the defeats Călin Georgescu, he needs the votes of the voters of the parties left without participants in the presidential race.
“The situation is delicate and the matter must be handled with great care and caution. Elena Lasconi has no interest in antagonizing the PSD electorate. Because if the PSD electorate decisively moves to Călin Georgescu’s camp, he can become president. Elena Lasconi’s duty is to count on the widest possible platform”, says Stanomir.
What the USR candidate also has to do, the political scientist believes, is to “change the style of being”.
“He is no longer the mayor of Câmpulung, he is the opponent of Călin Georgescu. And Călin Georgescu, if you look, is a man who takes himself very seriously and with this very seriousness he convinced many. Monomaniacs and fanatics have this quality of taking themselves seriously. That is why Mr. Călin Georgescu must be taken seriously. And you can only oppose him if you take yourself very seriously and if you think of political strategies that are viable, strategies that allow, first of all, the establishment of a decent parliamentary majority and, secondly, the blocking of this gentleman in his attempt to rule to become the president of Romania”, explains the political scientist.
What is the choice
The choice that Romanians have to make in less than two weeks is a difficult one. Călin Georgescu’s voters represent the electorate hostile to bad policies, to everything that has happened since the pandemic, the candidate appearing out of nowhere being only the vector that capitalized on all these grievances. What can be done, says political scientist Ioan Stanomir, is for every Romanian to think very carefully about the meaning of his individual action, “what can he do as a man”.
“It is good to understand that the president of Romania is someone who can have a direct and decisive impact on our lives and that a president who would try, for example, to remove Romania from NATO or to establish unilateral ties with the Russian Federation, in disregard of commitments and interests is someone very dangerous. And we still have to understand something: that after 10 years we are in a very, very bad situation. We have a choice between two personalities that, forgive me, we would not have chosen under normal circumstances. Because Mrs. Elena Lasconi is not ready to be president either, but the question that is on everyone’s lips is what to choose: between someone who is not ready to be president and someone who is ready to be president, but ready to do this country terrible harm. I think that is the question. Mr. Călin Georgescu is from a completely different bill. He is not George Simion, it’s not Diana Sosoaca, it’s someone else entirely. And those who put themselves behind his reign thought and premeditated”concluded Ioan Stanomir.
