Democracy,
its political institutions, and constitutional checks and balances are fragile.
Populist politicians, taking advantage of the economic crisis in the European
Union created by the welfare nanny state, are attempting to take over hearts
and minds with promises they cannot keep.
Populism
is supposed to be a “political doctrine that supports the rights and power of
the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite.” If you replace
common people with proletariat and privileged elite with the rich, you have
incipient, street level community organizing for communism.
That
is how communism was sold to Eastern Europeans 60-70 years ago. That is how
communism is sold again to Eastern European countries like Greece and Romania,
faced with austerity measures that affect ordinary citizens. The corrupt kleptocracy
that squandered EU money and used funds and loans to enrich themselves are not
really suffering.
The
elderly are nostalgic about the worry-free, poverty level subsistence nanny
state. The confused Romanians are tired of corruption and bribery. They have
experienced freedom from communism but not from the former communists who had
stolen and pillaged the country blind, while the ruling elite closed their eyes
to the corruption and took advantage of their new-found power to participate
and to squelch democratic judicial decisions and democracy in general.
The
current power struggle is fought between the old guard communists with their wealthy
families, turned into thriving billionaire capitalists, and the young neo-communists,
who have had no memory or experience of Ceausescu’s communist dictatorship.
These young neo-commies are lured and supported by European socialist and
Marxist parties.
The
left-wing Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, took over Parliament in an attempt to
remove any checks and balances on his government, while forcing the current
president from office. Ponta became Prime Minister in May after two
right-of-center coalitions collapsed. (Washington Post, July 2012)
A
country of 22 million people, Romania has approximately 12 parties. Prime
Minister Victor Ponta cobbled a social-liberal coalition, led by his own Social
Democrat Party (PSD). PSD has roots in the former Romanian Communist Party
under Nicolae Ceausescu. (Andrew MacDowall, Christian Science Monitor, July 12,
2012)
In January 2012, thousands of Romanians
protested President Traian Basescu’s authoritarian rule. The tipping point was
his criticism of the deputy health minister, Raed Arafat. Arafat demanded
efficiency and transparency in health care and private participation in
emergency health services. Arafat resigned after televised direct criticism
from President Basescu.
Arafat returned to work eventually, the
President scrapped his controversial health care bill, but the protesting
group, calling themselves the Romanian branch of the Arab Spring, continued
their fight to remove the President. (Christian Science Monitor, Andrew
MacDowell, January 17, 2012)
President Basescu, an ally of Emil Boc,
the Prime Minister at that time, had a strong majority in Parliament. On
February 6, after country wide protests, Emil Boc resigned “to defuse political
and social tensions.” An interim Justice Minister was appointed, Catalin
Predoiu, the only one in Boc’s cabinet who had no political party affiliation.
People resented Boc’s government because
he increased sale taxes from 19 percent to 24 percent in response to the
shrinking of the economy by 7 percent which necessitated the $26 billion in
loans from the IMF to help pay salaries and pensions.
Ponta and Basescu argued publicly over who
should represent Romania at the EU summit. The Constitutional Court, based on precedent
and protocol, decided that the president should attend. Ponta disagreed and “stripped
the court of its right to overrule the parliament, replacing some members,”
including the Ombudsman, with his political allies. Prime Minister Ponta also
seized the official bulletin in which laws were published in an attempt to
control legislation, delay the court, and prohibit the release of new rules by President
Basescu. (Andrew MacDowall, July 12, 2012)
Ponta’s Ph.D. dissertation was challenged
and declared blatant plagiarism, in spite of the fact that he tried to disband
the academic panel charged with the investigation.
A July 29 referendum is scheduled to
decide if the President should be impeached. Having overstepped Constitutional
authority, Prime Minister Ponta and his allies hope that the referendum will impeach
President Basescu and his allies. The court ruled that the referendum turnout
must exceed 50 percent of the voters in order to be valid. The rule would
ensure that the President would not be ousted by a low voter turnout.
Ponta did not like the court’s ruling
and tried to change it, so that impeachment would be ratified by a majority of
those voting instead of a majority of all registered voters. Ponta had to retreat
when EU leaders threatened Romania with sanctions.
The European markets reacted negatively
to the internal power struggle - the Romanian currency plunged in value and the
borrowing costs for Romania escalated.
Ponta and his left-wing allies are not
exactly backing down. His campaign will lure voters in the general election
with the promise that he will reverse the austerity measures put in place in 2009.
President Basescu, the former leader of the Democrat Liberal Party, a former
communist himself, is an outspoken and confrontational individual who disdains
the opposition. Cristian Mititelu, of the BBC Romania said, “The austerity
measures seem to have penalized those who worked for the state, retirees, and
people who depended on social security.” (Alison Mutler, AP, February 6, 2012)
According to Ovidiu Nahoi, a Romanian
journalist, problems abound. The endemic corruption from the communist regime
did not go away, it got incrementally worse. Romania received a loan of 20
billion euros in 2009 from the IMF on the condition that there will be a 25
percent cut in public sector salaries and 5 percent increase in value added
taxes (VAT). President Basescu, a Social Liberal, eliminated many state jobs. Ovidiu Nahoi said, “Pensions, prices, poverty,
injustice, and corruption are all major issues that have been amplified by
austerity. People are protesting not just against austerity, but against a
political system seen to be corrupt and unjust. They want a new structure of
society.”
Wanting change, and not sure what kind
of change, the people bought the promises of more welfare from the Ponta
government. The problem is that Ponta is a die-hard communist, having inherited
the roots of Ceausescu’s Romanian Communist Party which exploited his people
for 29 years, his tyrannical rule bringing them to the brink of economic and
societal disaster. Romanians are finding themselves now between the rock of
Ponta’s tyrannical communism and Basescu’s hard place of crony capitalism.
