1.Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu heads a government delegation visiting the United States of America.
After December 1989, it has been a tradition for Presidents and Prime Ministers to visit the United States, some time after being appointed.
The explanation of this tradition is simple.
Romania is with America in what we can call “an asymmetric relationship”. A small country, without much geopolitical importance, is part of a coalition led by a Great European or world Power. Although equality between countries is invoked as a principle of a Coalition, actually, when it comes to a country such as Romania, it’s hard to believe that the Strategic Partner will treat it as an equal. This is what various strategic partners of Romania have done over time: the Ottoman Empire, England, Germany, the Soviet Union. That is why the trips of our PMs and Presidents to the US after December 1989 have been trips to the Sublime Porte, as were the trips of Marshal Antonescu to Berlin and Nicolae Ceaușescu’s to Moscow. In communism, any new first secretary of the Party’s CC, after the election, paid a visit to Moscow. So did Nicolae Ceaușescu. After being elected as first secretary of the CC of RCP on March 22, 1965, he led a party delegation to Moscow between September 3 and September 11, 1965.
Unlike the trips to Berlin and Moscow, post-December trips to Washington had strong electoral significance. Through photos, films and texts about the journey, Romanians had to be convinced that the dignitary enjoys the trust of the strategic partner. That is why the main concern of Presidents and Prime Ministers when crossing the ocean was to arrange a photo session. The most sought-after photo was one with the American President, especially one in which the White House boss pats ours on the back Yankee-style. In all cases the national interest was sacrificed by Presidents and Prime Ministers for the sake of personal interest. Given that the relationship with America has long transcended the beginner level, it would be normal for the visits of our leaders to pursue agreements aimed at improving the lives of Romanians. Without exception, all the journeys of the Prime Ministers and Presidents to the US let pragmatism play second fiddle to protocol smiles. In exchange for a cap from Donald Trump, Klaus Iohannis returned to the country with the burden of a huge American armaments purchase. Klaus Iohannis went to Washington not to get something for Romania, but to get everything for him. Namely the image marketed to Romanians as the President favoured by Donald Trump.
The obsession with the photo has materialized in the concern of voyagers to have meetings at the highest level – with the President of the USA, if possible. From this point of view, Marcel Ciolacu’s visit could be considered a failure. The highlight of the visit is the meeting with Blinken, the Secretary of State.
A little too small for a Premier with the ambitions of Marcel Ciolacu.
Still, I do not believe that this was the purpose of Marcel Ciolacu’s journey. The Prime Minister simply wanted an official visit to America. This is what his predecessor as SDP leader, Liviu Dragnea, did not get. Like any SDP leader since Ion Iliescu, Marcel Ciolacu suffers from the “Being Recognized by America” syndrome, at which only right-wing politicians are immune. The fact that such a journey was even possible to organize is enough to fulfill the goal:
To prove he’s not a pariah to America.
Being the first trip of Marcel Ciolacu to America, we can also talk about an initiation enterprise. On the occasion of the trip Marcel Ciolacu can learn something about the way things are done in Washington. From this point of view, the Prime Minister should return to the country cured of the American Syndrome, which also includes many provincial illusions about the realities in the US.
I am very curious if Marcel Ciolacu will understand anything about the functioning of the political-administrative mechanisms in America.
And he will come back with a much more realistic approach regarding the relationship between Romania and America.
2. Cătălin Drulă, SRU President, asked EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to intervene and stop the prosecutors investigating Vlad Voiculescu for abuse of office.
The gesture – unbelievable, if we were to think about the SRU image as a NAD fan – was identified as an attack of a political leader against Justice.
Obviously, it is part of the norms of political correctness in a democracy that politicians do not attack investigations by prosecutors or decision made by magistrates. In short, they should not interfere in the affairs of justice. From this point of view, Cătălin Drulă has indulged in a practice dear to SDP leaders in the past, an exercise for which SRU has long denounced Liviu Dragnea’s party. Even if SRU had not been in the cocky position of denouncer of the political interference in the course of justice, Cătălin Drulă’s letter is a huge mistake.
I can see in this Letter something else, much more serious. Namely the belief of SRU leaders that internal affairs can be resolved in Romania through outside intervention. Not infrequently, in the history of the world, groups or political parties in a country have sought foreign aid to win political battles. This is what a group from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party did in 1968, asking for the intervention of the Warsaw Treaty to safeguard communism in their country, when the duty to preserve it belonged strictly to that group.
Admitting that a battle has been initiated to keep Vlad Voiculescu safe, it must remain contained within Romania. In such a situation, to turn to outside assistance is not only to adopt a subservient mindset, but also to acknowledge that you lack faith in your own capabilities.
3. Many websites have published a text headlined “The film of capturing Cherecheș in Germany, step by step”, without adding a comma
This is not a document, one of those received under the table or nicked by the press. No newspaper stated that it was a document. The text is published as if it were the result of an exclusive investigation of that particular site, although it appears identically in most of the press.
In reality, this is a text placed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to some friendly press outlets in order to push in the background the disaster called the unlawful crossing of the border by the former mayor of Baia Mare. What was desired was not only the creation of a smoke and sparks curtain to conceal reality, but also the persuasion of our public opinion that the MIA was at its best in terms of capturing the fugitive. A pitiful attempt to save Cătălin Predoiu, Minister of Internal Affairs, while diverting attention away from the fact that no action has been taken against those responsible for the disaster.