We’re now over 10 days into the elections for the European campaign and I’m sorry to say this, but Commissioner Wallström is wrong when she says that the media is starting to pay more and more attention to the upcoming European elections. This is not at all the case, at least in Romania. The European elections got some attention only during the week-end, when the main parties travel in different regions of the country to present their candidates. Other than that, the main news that capture the political headlines refer to the presidential elections this fall, whether the current president will run or not for a second term, what foreign languages know the main competitors and what are the latest internal battles within the parties. I’m sorry to say, but “second-order elections” is a generous label for the way European elections are looked at here.
In the meantime, the only sign that the country is in the middle of a campaign for European elections is represented by these boring pictures hanged throughout the cities.
This are the electoral posters of the Democrat-Liberal Party. Their slogan “La bine si la greu” means “For good and for worse” and it refers to the financial crisis. Actually, the main idea repeated over and over again by the leaders of this party (its president being the current prime-minister) is that they are preoccupied with fighting with crisis.
In Cluj they promote the image of Rares Niculescu, who is 9th on their list. He is already MEP and was almost appointed spokesman of the Government in March, being one of the favorites of the prime-minister, formerly the mayor of Cluj. However, Niculescu got into a fight in a nightclub and was no longer given this position. In fact, even his presence among the candidates for European elections on position that grants him another term in the EP came as a surprise. His message for voters in Cluj is tied, once more, to European funds, which are presented by politicians as a universal medicine for the lack of money and investments in Romania. Especially around European elections, all parties, but especially the Democrat-Liberals and the Social-Democrats use the idea of European funds to go as far as claiming that this money can be used to increase pensions and salaries. Niculescu is not reaching this level of populism, but his clear ideas about how European funds should be used are quite limited. In his previous term he mainly focused on how European money can contribute to the program of rehabilitating old blocks of flats, which has been launched by the government and by local authorities all over Romania. Not a single Euro from the EU came in Romania for this program and it is not clear how this could happen.
The Democrat-Liberals are expected to take about 40% of the votes in Cluj.
The Social-Democrats don’t have candidate from Cluj on a top position, therefore their visibility here is quite limited. Their posters present the top candidates on the list, while all 43 names included on it are printed on an A4 sheet of paper. “Alege bine!” means “Choose well!”. In the center of the poster is Mircea Geoana, their president and the man who will try to beat president Traian Basescu in the presidential elections. He officially launched his presidential campaign two days ago. The Social-Democrats are in a formal alliance with the Conservative Party (that’s why there is a +PC on the red poster). The Conservatives are affiliated to the Alliance of Liberal-Democrats in Europe, not to the PES. They will have one MEP (the 8th person on the list), who will be forced to join the Socialist group.
The Social-Democrats and the Democrat-Liberals form the strange coalition that is now governing Romania. During electoral meetings, each party launches very straightforward attacks against the other one. Then, after official coalition meetings, they claim they joked and that everything is going great when it comes to governing the country. The two parties are both rated at national level by the recent polls at 31% of the votes, while others give the Social-Democrats a slight advantage.
The Liberals have a similar approach to their campaign. They also don’t have a top candidate from Cluj (although their top candidate on the list is a former senator elected in Cluj county, but she is born and lives in Bucharest), so their campaign here also focuses on the image of the party’s president, Crin Antonescu, another hopeful for the presidential elections. Their slogan, at least in this poster, is “Money for Romanians. European money.” The choice for this slogan is somewhat strange, because during the years they governed in a minority government (May 2007-December 2008), they had a very poor performance in absorbing European funds. Therefore, they give ground for more harsh criticism from their political enemies. My personal opinion, however, would be that the Liberals have the best list of candidates, at least in its top eligible positions. Plus, they open the list with four women, which may attract a good share of votes.
The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania is expected to obtain a good score in Cluj, where there is a significant Hungarian minority and to pass the 5% threshold at the national level (they traditionally score around 7% of the votes). Their electoral message refers to the historic agreement between the party and Bishop Tokes Laszlo, who left the party (or was expelled, it depends who you ask) years ago and ran as independent in the 2007 elections, winning an MEP seat. His performance in the EP has been rather poor, yet he was given the first place on the DAHR list. The Hungarians’ slogan is very simple and, as always, bi-lingual: “Vote for the list of solidarity!” would be the translation in English. They don’t refer in any way to the crisis or to European funds.
Last and, with your permission, least, are the two representatives of the Greater Romania Party. First, on the left side of the picture in the middle, is the “Die hard” Corneliu Vadim Tudor, who has been running for president in every election since 1996 (he entered the second round in 2000). He suffered a major setback in the last parliamentary elections, when his party failed to pass the 5% threshold. The second on the list is the owner of Steaua Bucharest, Gigi Becali. The two cursed each other like hell in the last 3-4 years. Becali took over the New Generation Party in 2006, claiming that God ordered him to enter politics in order to save Romanians and naming himself “The Warrior of Light”. His party failed constantly in all elections (though it obtained a position of vice-mayor of Bucharest last June) and he pledged to leave politics following the poor results last November. At the end of this March, he was arrested and kept in prison for almost month, but was released the day before orthodox Easter and he did not hesitate to associate his “sufferance” in jail with the last days of Christ. Nevertheless, he attracted widespread sympathy from the public and “Free Gigi!” became a trademark of those days (feel free to visit www.freegigi.ro; although the website is only in Romanian, it will give you a good idea about this character). 
It was during his stay in prison that Vadim Tudor asked him to be second on the list of candidates of the Greater Romania Party. Becali accepted, left the New Generation Party, which, however, immediately endorsed his actions and announced that the entire party will support the Greater Romania Party in the elections. After Becali was released, they appeared together in public several times and Vadim already announced that, even if they are elected in the EP, he will run for president and he will name Becali as prime-minister if he wins. Their slogans are very funny, especially in Romanian: “Two christians and patriots will save the Country from thieves!” and “Do you want to get read of rascals? Vote for Vadim and Becali!”. Both slogans rhyme in Romanian. The latest polls rate them around the 5% threshold, but public sympathy for Becali has gone down since he was released and he is no longer in the center of media attention.
There is no kind of appearance from the independent candidate Elena Basescu, the daughter of the president. She is rated at around 3% of the vote, which would allow her to gain the MEP seat.
This is pretty much how the campaign looks like in the big cities around Romania. Some lame poster and some youngsters giving around balloons downtown. There is no debate about wider European issues, about the Lisbon Treaty, about energy, transportation, protectionism, you name it… With a bit of luck, I will soon show you how the campaign looks like in rural Romania. It’s absolutely delightful to watch! Also, following Franck’s idea, I will hopefully hold an interview with the Romanian minister of European Affairs, Vasile Puscas, during the week-end.
(32 votes, average: 4.69 out of 5)
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very interesting candidates, I think sometimes all these political parties and candidates sound like a big joke. Do you also have a problem that people who might be really serious and good in politics mainly just don’t want to get engaged with the party lines?
yeah, absolutely. working as a journalist gave me the chance to meet many very capable young (and older) people who were simply kicked out of these parties for trying to have a different attitude or who chose to take a step back on their own. it’s sad when this happens, cause it shows that all the nice theory about how parties recruit social elites is simply not applicable to real life politics. at least here, but i assume in other countries as well.
totally agree! I even dare to be more radical and trying to think that maybe future politics will have to orientate beyond parties…
With this type of campaign and 30+ seats to be distributed, it seems the main question will be whether Elena Basescu (http://elections.thinkaboutit.eu/2009/03/should-the-ep-get-a-facelift/) manages to get into the EP?
P.S. I’m not that good in Hungarian but it seems that DAHR employs two different slogans - “Vote for the solidarity list” (for Romanian speakers) and “Vote for the Hungarian list” (for Hungarian speakers).
you’re right about the hungarian translation, hristo, but i would say the message is the same. the DAHR does that usually, it changes the wording in the slogans between langauges slightly.
Elena Basescu is indeed one of the main question marks of the campaign, but i would say another equally important one is if Vadim and Becali pass the threshold. as i said in the post, Elena Basescu is quite absent from the campaign so far. she is more active on facebook (i have her as a friend) rather than in the campaign. also, the party that comes first (PD-L or PSD) is also important, cause it will influence the dynamics in the coalition.
tanja, getting rid of conventional parties, considering the way they look now, would be quite a possible scenario in the future. although if they regain their original functions and role in the society, they should still exist. but maybe the problem is not parties as such, but politicians in general. and anyone who is subject to voting in elections, regardless if he/she is from a party or not, is a politician. what should we do then?
Heh, I wonder how would all the Britts, so focused on their idea of “taxpayers’ money”, react to all the Romanian slogans that basically brag about who can pull more EU cash into areas of life they would never be able to. Or, in short, that the EU is nothing else but a huge money cow for 90% of Romanians. If only we’d find that udder already!
yeah, portraying the EU as a Milka cow would be a good image for the way parties present the EU in the Romanian campaign. and the parties would compete on who can be a better milkman
George, I have to admit that your article made me miss home so much! You really captured what Romania is in terms of “European related debates”! It is quite funny to see the Liberals emphasizing the image of Antonescu, the guy who is preparing to run for presidency! Not to mention the hilarious picture of Becali and Vadim, two of the craziest guys in Romanian politics!
When I read the online press from Romania concerning the opening of the electoral campaign and the moments when each party presented their EP candidates, the only thing I could read about was how Social Democrats were criticizing Basescu, how Boc was threatening the Social Democrats that they will be kicked out from the governing alliance, and the Antonescu shouting loud and clear something against Basescu again…I was wondering where was the EU in all this story???
But I guess EU will come into picture as a big issue on the Romanian political scene only when citizens will show some interest in it and therefore politicians will feel incentives to exploit this topic. Otherwise, the EP campaign is just the preamble for the autumn Presidential elections…
but how can romanians learn about the importance of the EU if the politicians do not send accross any meanngful message related to it and if the media, who plays essentially the most important role in informing people, pays attention primarily to what politicians say? it’s a very unfortunate vicious cercle and the media is mainly guilty for accepting to be part of it.
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