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CSÍKSZEREDA MUSINGS

My life in and around Csíkszereda, also known as Miercurea Ciuc. A small town in
the Ciuc Depression, Romania. I reserve the right to go off topic and talk about
anything I damn well like.




THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020


FEAR AND LOATHING IN HARGHITA COUNTY


Some news stories are depressing in the extreme (and seemingly there are an
increasing number of these).  But once in a while one comes along that is so
depressing that it makes me despair.  So much in fact that I have returned to
this blog after years of silence, because I really need to get this out and
express my anger at the kind of ignorant, intolerant people who apparently live
round here. 

I've commented before on the problems that have arisen in Romania through
emigration, that people cannot find workers to do lots of things and that the
country is losing so many of its people.  Well, one business owner in a nearby
small town managed to find a way to solve this problem.  This was at a bakery in
the village/town of Ditrău/Gyergyóditró which is here in Harghita county. 
Unable to find workers who lived locally, the owner of this company went through
all of the proper channels and found two willing and qualified workers from Sri
Lanka to come and work in the bakery. Seems like the right thing all round. The
bakery gets workers, the two guys from Sri Lanka get a reasonable job, which
presumably makes them more money than they would get at home, the local people
get bread, and everyone's happy, right?


Until this week, the most famous thing about Ditró was the church
(image: wikipedia)


Wrong.  And not because this is just shifting the problem of emigration from
Romania to Sri Lanka (though obviously it does that).  No, many of the residents
of this previously sleepy little town have revealed themselves to be small
minded, intolerant, ignorant, hate-filled awful people.  They are up in arms
about these two innocent men working in their village.  Shouting about "keeping
migrants out of Ditró", they have made a facebook hate group, and are
campaigning to somehow ban these people from the place.  To his credit the mayor
of Ditró has basically said that he can't tell a business owner who to employ
and he wouldn't want to anyway.  He also pointed out that when he has called for
things like ridding the village of litter, there is virtually no response. 

In concerns for their safety (concerns for their safety! for making bread!),
they were moved to another village for accommodation and forced to commute, but
now it seems even that is problematic and they may have to move to the bigger
local town.  

I cannot imagine what life must be like for them. They have applied for and been
given a job in a country thousands of kilometres from home.  They have left a
very warm tropical country to come to one of the coldest places in Romania in
the middle of winter. And now they are faced with an angry baying mob,
metaphorically wielding pitchforks and burning torches like something from a
Transylvanian vampire story, who hate and fear them....for what? For daring to
bake fucking bread? Which these self-same villages will be eating?  It makes me
so upset.  

On top of this it's hard to imagine that there is anyone in Ditró who doesn't
have relatives working somewhere in western Europe, and presumably if those
relatives were being treated in this way by the communities they had moved to,
these villagers would be appalled.  Logical thinking, however, is not in very
good supply. 

I have to remind myself that this is primarily a sign of deep ignorance on the
part of the villagers (obviously I should note that there will also be villagers
who are not part of this intolerant mob). That they have been taught to fear
outsiders and find two darker skinned people in their midst an object of terror
and hate.  (The bakery has previously employed people from Ukraine, Hungary and
Switzerland, without invoking this kind of frothing anger).  And where does this
fear and intolerance come from?  It's not from some form of experience, as I
have little doubt that most of them have probably never met someone from any
non-European country before.  I don't believe it's natural.  So it comes from
somewhere. My feeling is that it comes from the racist Orban-controlled media in
Hungary (98% of the residents of Ditró are Hungarian).  Orban and his cronies
spread race hate wherever they go and use it as a way of keeping in power. 
Through social media and the internet, these are the stories that the people of
Ditró will be reading. In their minds, this is the beginning of this huge
invasion they've been told about repeatedly.  

Hungarian nationalists in Transylvania like to say that they are somehow "more
civilised" than their Romanian neighbours.  Is this civilised?  Is this what
they mean by civilised?  This is a huge shame on the people of Ditró and the
people of Székelyföld.  I am appalled and deeply deeply saddened

Here is the story in Romanian and here in Hungarian






Posted by Andy at 10:39 am No comments:





WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2019


A CITIZEN OF NOWHERE CHECKS OUT


I've reached the conclusion that trying to fight for and advocate what is best
for the UK now has to take second place to advocating for what is best for the
EU. And clearly what is best for the EU is that the UK, this shitshow of a
country, with its pathetic lying useless politicians who care only about
themselves and nothing beyond that, as well as its hard right xenophobic media,
leaves as soon as possible.
It's not that the EU is somehow perfect, obviously far from it, but it has
things that it needs to focus on, problems that it needs to face, and challenges
that it has to address. And waiting for the utterly pathetic UK to get its shit
together is no longer one of those challenges.
It's tragic for the people in Britain that I know and love and especially for
the foreigners living here who are getting utterly screwed by these
self-obsessed racist tossers, but it's clear that nobody who has any power or
influence in the UK will ever say "Listen we need to stop. This is stupid.", so
let's just move on. Britain can carry on living in the past and the rest of us
can move on and see how we can best approach the future.


Britain has told me that I'm not wanted, denying me any form of representation,
and calling me (and millions like me) a "Citizen of Nowhere". While at one time
this might have caused me an identity crisis of a sort, now it just makes me
think "fuck you".  Fuck you Britain, fuck you Theresa May, fuck you you
xenophobic disgusting wankers who run that small minded, small country which
used to have a point.    

Posted by Andy at 12:18 pm No comments:





FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2016


SMALL TOWN ROMANIA


I never write here any more, I guess I've run out of things to say, but from
time to time I guess events still have the power to rouse me from my apathy...

So, here's the story...

I am involved in an interesting and useful EU funded project which has the aim
of training young people to develop community based social enterprises with a
focus on sport. It's been very interesting and it has brought together
organisations in the UK, Italy, Turkey, and here in Romania.  This week groups
of young people from the 4 countries are here in the town having training
sessions, meeting, connecting and working together.  Each group is of between 10
and 12 university age people.  All the ones from the UK (from London
specifically) are from ethnic minorities (and most are Muslim). The Turkish
group are, obviously, Turkish, and then there is an Italian group and a local
group.  They're all enthusiastic, getting involved, enjoying their trip here
(though slightly nonplussed by the cold).

On Wednesday, after the morning training and lunch, the plan was to take them to
a gym where there was organised a floorball championship for them to all
participate in (floorball is sort of like ice hockey except without the ice, the
skates and the puck. So not that similar to ice hockey at all really. But
anyway, I digress).  They're all (the non-local ones) staying in the same place,
a fairly modern building on a high school site where there are dorm rooms for
this purpose and the training rooms too, and waiting for the bus to take them to
the gym they were milling around outside the building, when suddenly up
screeched a large police van which drove up and parked at an angle across the
access road.

Out steps a policeman and starts asking them questions. Of course he doesn't
speak any English, and as it happens at that moment there are no local
participants nor local organisers present, so nobody has any idea what is going
on. The questioning seems quite aggressive, and he asks for their passports
(this much is understood). This sort of standoff (not really a standoff as there
was just confusion and bewilderment and a little fear on the part of the
participants), goes on for sometime, until through someone calling one of the
local organisers, someone comes to translate and calm things down.  Eventually
the policeman is placated and after he has confirmed that there is a reason for
these people to be here and has been given various documents to pass on to his
boss, he leaves, allowing the traffic to flow again.

Basically nothing happened, but what lies beneath is most of the stuff that I
loathe about this place - there are also things I like about it here, obviously,
but there are one or two things that I can't stand. 1.Small-mindedness; 2.
racism; 3.an institutionalised ingrained sense that Romania is still a police
state (a sense that is shared by both the populace and the police themselves);
 and 4 corruption .  OK, that's four,  not "one or two".  And what this incident
contained was vivid reminders of 3 of those 4.

Piecing together what happened, it seems likely that one of the Turkish
participants went to a local shop to try and get a SIM card. He didn't speak any
Romanian or Hungarian, and the shopkeeper didn't speak any other languages.  The
interaction was challenging for both, and I think ended unsuccessfully.  After
he left, we think, that the shopkeeper (who had possibly encountered a few such
interactions in the day or so that they had been here), took it upon himself to
call the police to report the presence of suspicious possibly Muslim foreigners
in the area.  That of course is all speculation, but obviously at some point
somebody called the police for some reason, and as there were no specific
complaints that the policeman brought to the whole argument, it can only be that
he had been called to address the issue of suspicious people being around.

Now rather than calling the manager of the building that they were obviously
staying in and at that time directly outside, and finding out who they were and
why they were in town (not that even that level of interference should have been
necessary), he chose to get in a van ( a van designed for multiple arrests) make
a fairly big scene on entrance and demand answers. But of course without a
common language to actually obtain those answers.

One thing that really annoys me (among the many things that really annoy me
about this incident) is that I actually wondered before the course began whether
we should let the police know that these people were coming -and so, I
discovered, did the local organiser, but both of us concluded that we didn't
need to, and indeed shouldn't, because after all this is not 1987, and Ceaucescu
is very much dead, and there is no longer a Securitate, and having to inform the
police that there will be some strangers in town is NO LONGER A BLOODY THING.
Or, at least, we'd like to imagine so.  But the fact remains that I'm not immune
to this and I am infected by this idea that while we're not living in a police
state, that we should maybe act as if we are.

I think, the whole pre-revolutionary feel to this aside, that the thing it
reminds me of is the anti-Muslim racism that is just so utterly pervasive here.
 Thanks to people like Orban Viktor and a hostile and racist media, I feel like
I hear ignorant and ludicrously prehistoric views on a regular basis.  And it
drives me crazy, and makes me furious.

I even have doubts about posting this, I've been told enough times that it's
better not to stand up and say anything here, because, well because 30 years ago
to do so would mean very bad things for you and your family. And I confess that
I have pondered for a long time whether to say anything to complain about this,
to rail at the petty mindedness and racism and insular attitudes and heavy
handed policing.  But, I feel the need to, not because I think my views will
make a difference, but because to not say anything means I too am stuck in this
mindset.










Posted by Andy at 9:24 am 4 comments:

Labels: 1989, csikszereda, politics, rants, ridiculous examples of life in
Romania, scaremongering, xenophobia



SUNDAY, DECEMBER 06, 2015


STANDING UP


Sometimes I ask myself what I would have done if I had been German in the 1930s.
I am imagining that most liberally minded Europeans have asked themselves the
same (what they would have done, not what I would have done - I'm not quite that
self-absorbed). 
Would I have resisted and spoken up, at the risk of putting my own life in
danger? Would I have kept my head down and hoped that this "phase" would just
blow over? Would I have tried to help and shelter those being persecuted?
Increasingly it's beginning to look like I will get to answer this question. As
the anti-Muslim rhetoric and attacks rise and become more and more mainstream,
what will I do? What will we all do?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/05/far-right-muslim-cultural-civil-war
(I'm not keen on the term Islamophobia, because it implies the Islamophobes
oppose the religion, when in fact it's racism and the anger and hatred is
directed at the people. But make no mistakes this wave of anti-Muslim-ism is a
vile and virulent form of racism sweeping Europe and the USA. We have to stand
and fight it in no uncertain terms.

Posted by Andy at 9:12 am No comments:





THURSDAY, DECEMBER 03, 2015


A "TERRORIST SYMPATHISER" WRITES


397 British MPs are so desperate to be seen to be doing something that they have
decided to see how many innocent people they can kill in response to innocent
people being killed. What's that Maslow quote again? "If the only tool you have
is drones, every problem seems like collateral damage"? Something like that.
And apparently all those millions of us who don;t think indiscriminately killing
a bunch of people is a good idea which will lead to world peace are "terrorist
sympathisers".
Well I have no reluctance, in turn, to call those 397, appalling stupid
murderous compassion-less fucking morons. Scum, every last one of the 397. Utter
scum.


I despair. The world is fucked up beyond belief.

Posted by Andy at 7:55 am 1 comment:





THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015


WHITHER DEMOCRACY?


Romania has a new technocratic government. With politicians either corrupt or
assumed to be, there is a logic to that, and the idea of having experts running
the various ministries makes a lot of sense (Raed Arafat must be about the
longest serving effective actor in successive governments, for precisely this
reason).

However, I can't help wondering about that whole democracy thing.  When we elect
politicians to high office, we do so based on the policies they espouse, not on
their competence.  Obviously hiring the competent has its advantages, but it's
not like there is one single approach to education, say, such that hiring an
educator to the education ministry is not a political act.

I'm troubled by this, and suspect that there will be a point when people will
notice that Iohannis / Ciolan have pretty much made a massively anti-democratic
set of decisions, despite the fact that I trust this government to run the
country more than any we've had since I've lived here.  If it works, is that
enough? 

Posted by Andy at 1:34 pm 3 comments:





MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015


"HUMAN RIGHTS FUNDAMENTALISM": ORBAN MAKES IT CLEAR WHERE HE STANDS


I was away recently, and while I was away, Hungarian prime minister came to
Tusnad (near where we now live) to make a speech at the annual "Tusvanyos"
event.  This was the venue last year for the famous speech he made where he
argued for illiberal democracy.  This year's speech was not about that but about
immigration, and predictably was not exactly liberal or tolerant or even
demonstrating any form of human empathy.  
It may be that many people outside Hungary are not really aware of Orban and his
views, so I have decided to relay his entire speech here (as translated by
Hungary Today, here - a source which is not exactly anti-Orban, and so I think
you can take it as a fairly faithful translation of what he said). I have
annotated it, not because I really think it needs to be annotated for normal
people to see through the rhetoric and see what lies beneath, but well, because
this is scary stuff and it needs to be highlighted, and because from what I
gather from social media Hungary is currently in the grip of some very serious
and very unpleasant anti-immigrant rhetoric, which is being played out very
publicly, and will, before long, I'm afraid, lead to worse than simply just
angry words. 
So, anyway, here, in full, with annotations in bold italics, is Orban's speech.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




> Good morning,

Allow me to welcome attendees at the open university camp. I am glad to have the
opportunity to be reunited with Bishop László Tőkés, [Such a shame that one of
the heroes of the 1989 Romanian revolution should have sunk to being a puppet
for this extremist Hungarian PM] I am pleased to see dozens of my old fellow
combatants, and I particularly welcome the Szekler flags I can see. Thank you
all for coming. Following my success last year in causing uproar (provoked by my
presentation on the end of the era of liberal democracies and the advent of
illiberal democracy), this year my task is not an easy one: the bar has been set
too high. Having searched through every available dictionary on political
philosophy, I drew a blank: I could find nothing that representatives of today’s
western ideological mainstream could find sufficiently offensive compared with
last year.[I don’t know, Viktor, you seem to have done a good job, in coming up
with the vile far-right garbage you’re about to launch into.  Don’t do yourself
down so much.  Rest assured you do manage to be deeply deeply offensive most of
the time]  And now Bishop Tőkés has just said that at times he finds it hard to
keep track, and warned us that we should not overdo the Brazilian-style
on-the-ball tricks, because we might trip over our own feet.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A year ago I said that we are living in times when anything can happen, and this
is still true today. Who would have thought that Europe would be unable to
protect its own borders, even against unarmed refugees? Who would have thought
that things would get to the point at which, for instance, the head of the
Islamic community in France would publicly suggest that the French State could
hand over redundant Christian churches, because there is a demand for them to be
converted into mosques? [This by the way is not true, but even if it were, if
there are buildings lying empty – as many churches are – why not use them for
something else.  There are converted churches all over the place, why would it
be a problem?  Oh yes, of course, in the dog whistle world of Orban, this is all
code for the idea that “The Muslims are taking over”.]  Who would have thought
that the United States was tapping the telephone conversations of German
political leaders? This has finally been revealed, and it is not the end of the
world. And who would have thought that we Europeans would act as if nothing had
happened, and amicably continue free trade talks with a counterpart who probably
knows our negotiating positions before we do ourselves? And furthermore, who
would have thought that the Americans would deploy weapons in Central Europe,
and the Hungarian parliament would find itself pondering the thorny question of
whether or not Hungary should sign up to this? And who – other than us – would
have thought that by the end of 2014 Hungary would be the second-fastest
developing country in the entire European Union?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The uncertainty of the future may even prompt us to consider the nature of the
future in a political context – or more precisely, the nature of being able to
understand the future. We tend to conceive of the future – or, to be more exact,
knowledge of the future – as if we were a captain navigating our ship into the
unknown: we are at the prow, with telescope in hand, scanning the horizon for
unknown shores. Those with the sharpest eyesight or the most powerful telescope
will be first – the first to possess knowledge of the future. It is as if the
future stood before us, out there in the unknown, like an undiscovered continent
which existed in the real world and was waiting for our approach. But, dear
friends, the nature of the future is completely different from this. Its most
important characteristic is that it is not fully-formed; indeed, it does not
exist at all, and will only occur hereafter. Therefore, there is no point in
straining our eyes to see the future. It is better to think of the future as if
we were rowers in a race, sitting with our backs to the bow. Like rowers, we can
only see what is already behind us, and that which happens to come within our
field of vision. We must direct the bow of the boat towards the future, and as
the shore unfolds before our eyes, we must deduce the future from that which we
already know. In other words, in thinking about the future we are not competing
to looking far ahead of us, but rather competing to understand the past. The
winners will be those who can better understand the past, and who can come to
the right conclusions more swiftly and more courageously. This is the
starting-point of political leadership and planning. [Nicely put. Shame you’ve
started looking back and pining for the certainties of the 1930s]
Dear Friends,
This is good news, because to understand we need intelligence – we need brains –
and across the world nothing has been as intelligently distributed: everyone is
convinced that they have a little more of it than others do. If we think about
the future of the European Union, and our own future within it, we should first
examine the past of the European Union. Despite all our sharply critical
remarks, we must point out that the European Union is in itself a great success:
in terms of peace, development and welfare. It is nevertheless true that up
until 1990, the peace that had endured since World War II was not due to us
Europeans, but to the Americans and the Russians, who decided on the affairs of
Europe for us; there is no doubt, however, that since 1990 the success we have
achieved has been our own success. Whatever problems may weigh on our minds now,
this fact cannot be negated – even by events since 2008.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At times there are phenomena which enable us to understand a given era, and
which encapsulate its essence. In our lifetimes, modern mass migration is just
such a phenomenon. Looking through this window, we can see the whole world. It
is by this that the world is framed, and it is through this that we can
understand where we are and what awaits us.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let us speak plainly: the intensification of modern-day mass migration is a
consequence of political processes. [Primarily inequality, Mr Prime Minister,
though you’re about to argue that it’s something else] The countries of North
Africa once functioned as a defence zone protecting Europe, absorbing the masses
of people coming from Africa’s interior. [Ah, so the reason people are migrating
to Europe is because there is no Gaddafi there to repel them? ] And the real
threat is not from the war zones, Ladies and Gentlemen, but from the heart of
Africa. [Now we’re getting to it, now we’re getting to the core of Orban’s dark
heart, so to speak. The heart of Africa. That’s the real “threat”. No more dog
whistle racism, this is the real thing] With the disintegration of North African
states this line of defence has been spectacularly breached, and North Africa is
no longer able to protect Europe from a vast flood of people. As a result, a
problem has developed on a truly unimaginable scale. [In fact the vast majority
of refugees trying to come to Europe are coming from places like Syria and
Afghanistan, but obviously those people are a little too obviously refugees for
this point to be made as Orban would like, so we'll just pretend it's the whole
of sub-Saharan Africa attempting to march on Budapest] I agree with former
President Sarkozy, who said on French television just the other day that the
current wave of mass migration is only the beginning. There are one point one
billion people in Africa today, more than half of them under the age of
twenty-five. According to Mr. Sarkozy, before long hundreds of millions of
people will have nowhere to live, and insufficient food and water. [So, rather
than focusing on that problem, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, we’re going to
ensure that this situation remains.  That about the size of it?] Following in
the footsteps of today’s migrants, these people will leave their homelands. [As
people have done for centuries. Millennia in fact. As a proud Magyar, Mr Orban,
perhaps you might even spot an irony here… but let’s not trouble ourselves with
that and move onwards] In other words, what is at stake today is Europe and the
European way of life, [whatever that may be] the survival or extinction of
European values and nations – or, to be more precise, their transformation
beyond all recognition. [Yes, immigration changes the countries that end up
hosting immigrants – though it changes the immigrants more – but is this
necessarily a bad thing? I think you can argue quite forcefully that it changes
the countries that are left behind for the worse. Look at the countries of
Eastern Europe. Look at Romania, Orban, the country from which you made this
speech. A country that has lost 15% of its population in the last 10 years, that
is losing its best and brightest.  Yes, migration is a problem, but not in the
way you are trying to scare people about] The question now is not merely what
kind of Europe we Hungarians would like to live in, but whether Europe as we now
know it will survive at all. Our answer is clear: we would like Europe to remain
the continent of Europeans. [Again with the irony. OK, let’s define this
European thing. What makes someone a European? How many generations back do you
have to go to be one? We all came from “the heart of Africa” at some point] This
is what we would like. We only say “we would like this”, because this also
depends on what others want. But there is also something which we not only would
like, but which we want. We can say we want it, because it depends only on us:
we want to preserve Hungary as a Hungarian country. [Hungarian or Magyar?  There
is a difference, and it’s an important one. As Pal Lendvai argues in his
excellent book, there is a sense of “Hungarianness” which is about inclusiveness
and making a nation out of disparate ethnicities, and then there is something
other, a “Magyar” idea which is much more about ethnic purity. The distinction
is key, though in the Hungarian language there is no word other than Magyar for
“Hungarian” in this way, so it wouldn’t exactly come out in translation] It is
important to point this out over and over again, although this may appear a
cliché in our circles. Yet we must point this out over and over again because
there are some who think otherwise. However incredible it might be, and however
difficult it might be for us to acknowledge it with the intellectual and
spiritual reserves at our disposal, there are indeed some who think otherwise.
[Yes, of course there are. No doubt there is some vast global conspiracy even
now which is trying to turn Hungary into a country of Uruguayans, or of
Seychellois, or something]
The European left, dear friends, do not see immigration as a source of danger,
but as an opportunity. The left has always looked upon nations and national
identity with suspicion. They believe (and take note of their choice of words)
that the escalation of immigration may fatally weaken – indeed eliminate –
national borders, and in historical terms this would also constitute the
attainment of the left’s as yet unimaginable long-term goal. Although this may
sound absurd at first, if we focus in on Hungary, it is likewise perhaps no
coincidence that in 2004 the Hungarian left incited animosity against Hungarians
in neighbouring countries [Note for outsiders - the animosity engendered by the
Orban government in neighbouring countries is FAR FAR greater than that
engendered by its predecessor], while today they are ready to welcome illegal
immigrants, whom they would greet with open arms. [Christ man. Do you really
believe this nonsense? What other massive conspiracies do you have up your
sleeves?  The moon landings were faked? 9/11 was a Mossad plot? ] Quite simply
these people, these politicians, do not like the Hungarian people – and they do
not like them because they are Hungarians. [Oh for fucks sake.  The Hungarian
left do not like Hungarians?  Give me a break you ludicrous buffoon. This is
pathetic] Similarly, a fair number of centres of financial and political power
in Brussels also have a vested interest in erasing national structures, and
eliminating national identities. Just imagine, Ladies and Gentlemen, what would
have become of Hungary if the left had had the chance to form a government in
2014. [It would be like France, for example, or some other European country in
which the soft left had formed the government. It would probably have lots of
problems, just as it does now, just slightly different ones. But let’s face it
would not have been radically transformed, other than the fact that it wouldn’t
be governed by a racist piece of dirt like you] It is a shocking thought, but
let us just imagine it for a second: within a year or two, we would not have
been able to recognise our own country; we would be like a refugee camp, a kind
of Central European Marseille. [Yes of course. I wonder if there was anyone in
your audience who actually believed that.  I certainly hope not]
We know that meeting a bear in the woods is no laughing matter – and neither is
a parliamentary election. [Ha ha very funny. Mr Comedian. Nice Szekely gag
there. Good work. Always nice to play to your crowd.]
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Here must note that the upsurge of migration is also related to the fact that
some people see the West’s human rights fundamentalism [Oooh, nice expression,
and one that begins to get to the heart of your vileness, Viktor: “Human rights
fundamentalism” A belief in human rights is a form of fundamentalism now is it?
I’m guessing there are certain humans you’d like to argue don’t have the same
rights as others, are you?  We’re getting there, aren’t we?  Back to the 1930s,
I can see that’s where you’re going with this] as an invitation, regardless of
the reasons they have for wanting to leave their countries. Because naturally
there are genuine refugees, but there are many more who are merely seeking to
enjoy the benefits of the European lifestyle. [This is bollocks, mate.  You’re
presenting these people as mad holidaymakers. It’s a huge wrench for people to
leave their homes, a huge trauma. You must know this, enough Hungarians have
done this, have become economic migrants because of lack of opportunities and a
desire for something better for their children. It’s not about a “lifestyle”
it’s about desperation. ] As this many people would never be able to enter the
territory of the European Union legally, more and more of them are accepting the
risks associated with illegal immigration – and more will do so in the future.
And as the European Union only has principles, but no genuine sovereignty (for
example, it has no border guards), it does not know how to handle this new
situation.[For once I agree with you.]  Brussels is unable to protect the people
of Europe from the flood of illegal immigrants; [“flood”. Hmmm] in the words of
a former German finance minister, “The problem with Europe is that it keeps
kicking a can up a hill, and is surprised to find that it keeps rolling back”.
The European Union started out as an economic alliance, and later also became a
political alliance; today it needs to act as a sovereign power, but in order to
do so it needs to further reduce national sovereignty. As the old Budapest joke
has it: at first they set off in the right direction, but they couldn’t keep to
it; then they set off in the wrong direction, but this time they kept to it
perfectly.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The mission of the European Union led to genuine long-term solutions to genuine
problems: peace instead of war, a common market instead of separate markets,
inclusion for the poor instead of exclusion. The European Union was pragmatic,
and also relatively flexible; hence its unique organisational solutions. But it
is obvious that something has gone wrong, and Europe has become an ideology
instead of genuine solutions. Europe no longer concentrates on the problem, but
merely considers whether a given solution weakens or reinforces its own closed
system of ideologies. [Again, I actually agree here. I may have to have a good
hard chat with myself if things go on like this. In my defence I suspect we
perceive the closed set of ideologies that represent the EU’s problem somewhat
differently] Europe has become an ideological obsession; if something is
reasonable and successful but strengthens the sovereignty of a nation state, it
is to be discarded – indeed, it is seen as an enemy, and the more successful it
is, the more dangerous.[Ah yes, we do disagree. Phew.] This is the essence of
the Hungarian story. [I have no idea what this final rhetorical flourish here is
supposed to mean]
Ladies and Gentlemen,
What we Hungarians do is successful, beyond doubt, but it is not in accord with
Brussels’ ideological concepts; in other words, it does not weaken Hungarian
national and state sovereignty, but reinforces them – and from this point of
view it is to be condemned. [Well, when it’s about enacting proto-fascist media
laws, then I think they have a point]This is why the European Union is unable to
resolve the crisis in Greece, which is a practical problem calling for a
practical solution.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We Hungarians have a vested interest in a strong European Union, and take the
view that successful solutions make Europe strong. European mainstream political
and intellectual forces believe that Europe will be strong if it is somehow
forged into a United States of Europe. Looking at our continent from this
perspective, we Hungarians are Europe’s Gaullists. The fact that there are no
individual bodies of separate nationhood within the United States is a function
of its nature, rather than its structure. Therefore we must not imitate this
aspect. By contrast, the nature of Europe resides in the fact that it is
composed of nations; in other words, attempting to create a United States of
Europe is a crazy idea. America is not made great by the fact that there are no
nations within it; America is made great by the fact that it is able to come up
with successful solutions. Therefore, if the European Union wants to be
successful, it must find its own viable solutions. Whether it will be able to do
this in the future, we do not know; but we do know that it has fallen short of
this since 2008, ever since the beginning of the economic crisis. Since 2008
people have formed the impression that the European Union is doing the same
thing over and over again, yet every time expecting a different outcome.[Another
paragraph with which I can find little to disagree]
Many of you may perhaps remember that the first country needing a rescue package
after the 2008 crisis was not Greece, but Hungary. Yet since 2010 we have
succeeded in reducing the debt to GDP ratio, making Hungary one of the few
Member States where this has happened. If we want to evaluate and appreciate the
efforts of the Hungarian people on their merits, we should cast a glance at
Greece. We are proud to have repaid our debt to the IMF ahead of schedule, and
only a small tranche of European Union aid remains to be repaid, which we will
do when it falls due at the beginning of 2016. Remember that Hungary never
requested any debt relief or rescheduling. Some may see this as a weakness,
while to others it is a virtue; I belong to the latter group. And all this has
happened against a background of growth in Hungary’s GDP which has been
outstanding in comparison with other Member States. It is something rare in the
history of the Hungarian economy, my dear friends – and nothing short of unique
in recent decades – that the economy’s external and internal balance indicators
are improving in tandem, and the economy is also growing at the same time.
Meanwhile we have succeeded in correcting two earlier errors: we have done away
with retail foreign currency loans, and thus prevented a financial collapse; at
the same time, we have succeeded in renationalising a number of previously
privatised strategic assets which constitute a core element of Hungary’s
national sovereignty. [I’m not familiar enough with Hungary’s economy to comment
on any of this. I suspect that there is a great deal of spin here, but I could
be wrong]
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When I said that illegal immigration is like “the ocean in a drop” – in that it
encapsulates the whole world – I was also referring to the fact that from it we
can deduce the most important tasks facing us in the years ahead. We must now
talk about four issues which will become priorities throughout Europe in the
period to come, and which will constitute the bulk of our tasks here in Hungary.
The first such question is the problem of national identity. Thirty years ago,
many Europeans saw the answer to European social problems in so-called
multiculturalism. In our circles I do not need to spell out the difference
between “multi-ethnic” and “multi-cultural”. [I think you probably do, Viktor,
as I suspect I know what you mean by the sentence, and even possibly what you
therefore think of as “our circles”] Today, however, increasing numbers of
people see multiculturalism not as a solution to problems, but as the cause of
them. [Ironic that this speech should be made in Transylvania, which for
centuries has been a multicultural society] Over the past thirty years several
European countries have decided to welcome masses of people coming from places
with different civilisational roots. I do not believe we should pass judgement
on this experiment; in fact I think we should not even allow ourselves to state
our view on the outcome of this experiment. All we can say – but we have to say
it firmly, having seen the results elsewhere – is that we do not want to repeat
this experiment on our country; this is something that we have the right to say.
[Hang on. You don’t want to say anything about the results of this “experiment”,
but you do not want to repeat it?  Is that saying nothing about it? Interesting
verbal gymnastics there, Mr Orban. And in referring to it as an "experiment" it
implies that there are some social scientists sitting there saying "I wonder
what would happen if we invited millions of people to come and tried to
integrate them", as opposed to there being a period of migration which
governments responded to, just as they have always done. ]
Another question that we must tackle openly and plainly is that there is a clear
correlation between the illegal immigrants who are flooding into Europe and the
spread of terrorism. [Bollocks. Utter utter bollocks].Interestingly, this is
obvious in English-speaking countries, but many others deny it. [OK let’s look
at European terrorism. I’ll even go with the mainstream view of what constitutes
terrorism to make it simple. The IRA, ETA, Red Army Faction, Baader Meinhof
gang, Chechens, etc, etc. None of them in any way whatsoever related to
immigration. The July 7th attacks in London? Carried out by British people
(Though, since we all know what Mr Orban is getting at here is the idea that it
is non-white skinned people that are the problem, he will no doubt see that
attack as verifying his point). The 11-M attacks in Madrid are actually the only
ones that I can think of carried out by immigrants]. Only recently, a senior
public security official from the United States pointed out in Hungary that the
correlation between these two factors is clear.[It must be true then. A single
unattributed source said so] It is undeniable that we are simply incapable of
screening out terrorists from such an enormous mass of people.[Just as it is
undeniable that it is impossible to stop any form of crime before it is
committed. Which is to say undeniable but completely facile at the same time]
Ladies and Gentlemen, we must agree with British Prime Minister David Cameron,
who says that we shall not be able to resolve this crisis unless we stop these
people right at the outset, when they are about to leave their own countries
[Who are "these people", Viktor?  Come on say it. Perhaps “In our circles” you
don’t need to spell it out]
The third problem which we shall have to cope with – after multiculturalism and
terrorism – is a problem which is economic in nature. Western experience shows
that illegal immigrants contribute to rising unemployment. This fact has become
particularly obvious in the period since 2008, when the European Union has been
struggling with an ongoing economic crisis, and when for most European countries
(because not every country is Germany), this high rate of unemployment
represents one of the main sources of tension. The arrival of new waves of
people in countries with already high unemployment rates results in even higher
unemployment. This is as simple as one plus one equalling two. [ Well, yes and
no. You are explicitly referring here to “illegal” immigrants – I’m not
comfortable with any human being referred to as “illegal”, but anyway – and
those people do not show up on the figures. They cannot get legal employment
anyway, and they cannot receive benefits.  So, what exactly is the proof of this
rise in unemployment? Migration does cause stresses in employment, but through
unscrupulous employers hiring people for low wages rather than other reasons
primarily. It sounds logical what you’re saying, but in fact you’re trying to
trick the audience here]
And finally let us also mention a subject upon which political correctness in
Europe has enforced a guilt-ridden silence. According to police statistics in
western countries, those states with large numbers of illegal immigrants
experience dramatic increases in crime, with a proportionate decrease in public
safety. [OK now we’re getting to it.  Immigrants are criminals. ] Let me cite a
few examples as food for thought. According to UN statistics – not statistics
from the Hungarian government, but from the United Nations – Sweden is second
only to the southern African state of Lesotho in terms of figures for rape.
[And? You’re blaming this on immigrants? This is loathesome stuff, Orban,
absolutely loathesome. Sweden has perhaps the widest definition of what
constitutes rape of anywhere. If Sweden is prosecuting more men for rape than
anywhere else, this says positive things about Sweden, frankly.] According to a
2013 British parliamentary report, the number of Muslims in British prisons has
tripled over the last fifteen years. [Muslims are more likely to be imprisoned
by the British state? It may be true, but there may be more than one reason for
that. In addition the number of muslims in Britain as a whole may have tripled
in that time period so in fact this may actually be saying nothing at all] In
Italy, one quarter of crimes in 2012 were committed by immigrants. [If this is
true, and I wonder whether it is, where did those immigrants come from?] And the
list goes on.[There is a thorough analysis of this whole paragraph of the speech
here
http://hungarianspectrum.org/2015/07/27/fact-checking-viktor-orbans-latest-speech/
] 
In summary therefore, Ladies and Gentlemen, we can say that illegal immigration
is equally a threat to Hungary and to Europe. It is a threat to our common
values and to our culture, and even to our diversity. [Like “diversity” is a
concern of yours, Viktor] It is a threat to the security of European people – a
threat which undermines our ability to cement our economic achievements. For as
long as it was able, Hungary attempted to enact measures which took full account
of its neighbours’ interests. Hungary has found itself in a trap, however, as
not only must we reckon with ever more waves of mass migration from the south,
but countries west of us have expressed the intention to return to Hungary those
people who have already passed through our country, after previously entering it
illegally. We are therefore under pressure from both the south and the west. The
truth is that we are unable to endure this.
The question of mass migration is a question of common sense and morals, a
question both of the heart and the mind; as such, it is a question which is
extremely complex and profound, and one which provokes strong emotions. [Indeed.
It does provoke strong emotions. Compassion among some, and hate among others]
Societal questions like this can only be tackled if we identify points on which
we can all agree as a community. This was the purpose of the Hungarian national
consultation on immigration, the official outcome of which I would now like to
share with you. As part of the national consultation, by 21 July one million two
hundred and fifty-four completed questionnaires were received. We sent out eight
million questionnaires, and more than one million have been completed and sent
back to us.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
From these completed questionnaires we may conclude the following. More than
two-thirds of Hungarians see the issue of the spread of terrorism as relevant to
their own lives. [When asked specifically about terrorism? Not much of a
surprise] Three-quarters of them believe that illegal immigrants are a threat to
the jobs and livelihoods of Hungarians. Four-fifths of Hungarians think that the
Brussels’ policy on immigration and terrorism has failed, and that we therefore
need a new approach and more stringent regulations.[Is this actually what was
said, and in response to what question? All seems a bit dodgy to me] In contrast
to Brussels’ lenient policy [I thought you said Brussels doesn’t have
policies?], four-fifths of Hungarians encourage the Government to adopt stricter
regulations to curb illegal immigration: regulations allowing us to detain
people who have illegally crossed Hungarian borders, and to deport them within
the shortest possible time. [Camps? Hmm, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It is
the 1930s in your head after all] And according to eighty per cent of those who
completed the questionnaire, illegal immigrants should cover the costs of
providing for them during their time in Hungary. [So Syrian refugees who have
lost everything, their homes, their families and their lives need to pay for
their own incarceration?  How exactly are you going to enforce that?  Come on,
let’s hear this, it’s got to be good.] Tough words, a firm stance – but this is
the Hungarian stance. And finally, the most important response, which takes
precedence over all others so far, is that the overwhelming majority of
Hungarians – ninety-five per cent of those who completed the questionnaire –
think that we must focus support on Hungarian families and the children they can
have, rather than on immigration. We can clearly see that the Hungarian people
have not lost their common sense. The results of the consultation therefore show
that Hungarians do not want illegal immigrants, and do not share the
intellectual derangement of the European left. [Hang on a second, there is a lot
of inconsistency here. Europe has no policies, yet it’s in thrall to its own
policies. The attitude of the EU towards immigration is driven by whom? The
European left?  Despite the fact that very very very few of the EUs members have
a left wing (or centre left) government? How has this "derangement" gained such
traction?] Hungary has decided, and this is how the Hungarian people have
decided. This means that we want to remain a safe and stable country, a united
and balanced nation in the uncertain world which surrounds us. Because though I
may be right in saying that in the world today anything can happen, I am perhaps
not wrong in believing that, in contrast to this, none of us want Hungary to be
a country in which anything can happen. [Just to remind you one more time,
Viktor, as you obviously had forgotten by this point, you were making this
speech not in Hungary, and the vast majority of your audience were not in fact
residents of Hungary. It’s tricky I know to remember these things, but you
seemed to imply earlier that national borders were something you cared very
deeply about]
Thank you for your attention.
And thank you, Viktor for your clear and overt message of hate and racism.  In
some ways I would rather you nail your colours to the mast in this way than be
all secretive about it, like the UK government. But you do scare me, because you
do control the media in Hungary and you do have a lot of power, which means that
we may indeed be returning to the 1930s as you would clearly wish, in which you
are no longer bound by "Human Rights Fundamentalism" and can proclaim certain
humans to be lesser and therefore fair targets for your detention camps, and
your forcible repatriation and whatever else you might be planning. 




Posted by Andy at 12:06 pm No comments:





THURSDAY, MARCH 05, 2015


WALLS OF DISAPPOINTMENT


Lumme. I haven't posted here since the day I made it clear that Victor Ponta
would win the presidential election. What a lot of water has passed under the
bridge since then. I'm very familiar with being wrong, but in some cases I'm
delighted to have been so.



Anyway, moving on...

Last weekend a travelling exhibition visited Csikszereda. It is called Walls of
Silence (or Hallgatás Fala in Hungarian). It's purportedly an exhibition about
the years of Communism in Romania and the 1989 revolution. It has been displayed
in Brussels and in various locations around Romania (I think, though I can't
find much detail on when and where.)  The website of the exhibition is
here: http://www.hallgatasfala.com/  - though you will note when you try and
open the English version of that site that, despite it claiming to have one, it
doesn't. The same happens with the Romanian version.

Anyway, along we went, to see what it was like and to also educate our teenage
daughter on some things that might be new for her regarding the period pre-1989.
 It was a series of poster panels, depicting various aspects of post WWII life,
of the events of Timisoara and beyond in 1989 and then various post 1989 events.
 There were a couple of videos too, such as an interview with Tőkés László made
on Hungarian TV before the revolution in Romania.

Now the first thing that struck me about this exhibition is that it was in two
languages. But these two languages were not, as you might expect, Hungarian and
Romanian, but rather Hungarian and English. There was no Romanian at all (well
there was a sort of sort of take away pamphlet in Romanian, but the exhibition
itself was in just the two languages). An exhibition about Romanian under
communism and the Romanian revolution, on display in Romania. But not in
Romanian.  It just struck me as needlessly and wantonly provocative.  Obviously
in Csikszereda the vast majority of people who visited it would be Hungarian but
some Romanians at least would be interested (and indeed the guest book featured
an angry comment in Romanian),

The exhibition itself was OK for the most part, at least in terms of the section
pre-1989 and the revolution itself.  The focus was very much on Tőkés, and it
seems that he, or his people, somehow were behind the exhibition, so it felt a
bit like the Tőkés show, but obviously his role in the 1989 revolution was
fairly big and so he deserves to be included in such a thing. But then there
were two sections that really jarred a bit.  One was a large section documenting
all the awards and medals he has been awarded around the world in regards his
role in the 89 uprising, which then concluded with a long section on how some
Romanian politicians last year had tried to have one of his national medals
withdrawn because of his Hungarian nationalism. There was no mention of what
kind of nationalist actions might have triggered this, and while I fully believe
that whatever he has done since should not detract from what he did to actually
win that medal in the first place, the lack of any form of explanation was
slightly troubling.

That was a minor quibble, however, and had that been the only issue I never
would have bothered writing this blog post. No the thing that really got my back
up was a panel depicting the events of 1989 in Hungary. Front and centre in this
display, in the photos and the text, were a young Orban Viktor. Now I recognise
that as a student Orban was there and was involved in the protests against the
government, but he was not the  Tőkés or the Havel or the Walesa of Hungary (The
wikipedia article on the end of communism in Hungary doesn't even mention him
for example). He was one of many involved in a groundswell of popular unrest
that eventually led to the toppling of the system.The highlighting of him is
particularly jarring give that the exhibition is about the lack of freedoms
before 89, the control of the media and the silence imposed on the population of
Romania .  And here, in the middle is something conveying hero status on the
European leader who is the most undemocratic and most authoritarian and the most
acting against a free media in his country. Orban is not Ceausescu, but he is
also not a democrat and he is clearly not someone who believes in freedom of
speech.

In short, this exhibition was deeply disappointing, and basically a pro-FIDESZ
whitewash (Tőkés  has close ties to FIDESZ). I left it feeling much more
antipathy towards Tőkés than I had before for putting his name to such a poorly
argued and presented piece of propaganda.  I suspect that wasn't the intention.
It is difficult to know what the intention actually was, in fact.

Posted by Andy at 7:26 pm No comments:





TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2014


WHY ROMANIA IS SCREWED


We are now firmly in the endgame of the presidential election, with Victor Ponta
facing Klaus Iohannis. Regular readers of this bog will have a fairly good idea
as to where my sympathies lie (or in fact where my hostilities lie).

A video is circulating today showing the President of Satu Mare County Council,
shouting and swearing for a lengthy period of time at various people,
threatening to fire them if Ponta does not win in Satu Mare County.  This
follows the first round in which - in the county- Iohannis beat Ponta by 0.6% of
the vote. The County president in question is clearly a PSD man, and equally
clearly irked by the disloyalty shown to him and his party by the voters (and
quite possibly has himself just been at the mercy of a tongue lashing from party
HQ in Bucharest).

But what is really telling about this video is not the shouting and swearing and
threats. What is really telling is that the people he is bawling out are all
political appointees.  A huge number of jobs in Romania are filled by people who
have been awarded that job primarily through party affiliations.  Sometimes it
seems nearly all civil service jobs are filled in this way.  So, the shouting
president almost certainly feels that these people who are in post because of
the PSD in the first place really do need to get their fingers out and drag
people kicking and screaming to the ballot box this coming Sunday to get them to
vote Ponta.

But, but, but.  This is Europe in 2014.  Why are so many jobs filled by party
apparatchiks and the loyal card carrying members? This is not Ceausescu's
Romania, this is the modern, EU member Romania.  But sadly this is still how
things work. The party makes the man. OK so it;s democratic now, so there is
more than one party, but it still works like this.  And the PSD is the worst
offender because they effectively are the old communist party so they have all
the systems and local functionaries in place already, from the village level to
the city. [Here in Hargita County, it is the UDMR rather than the PSD who have
this power of awarding positions to their friends]

This is the problem.  This is why this election is a scam. People will do
whatever they can (including breaking the law) to get the vote out for Ponta. It
is very telling that the votes for the diaspora went very much against Ponta in
the first round.  Taken from the control of the system, taken from the villages
where their votes are bought, cajoled, and coerced, people do not want the same
old system again.  They want Romania to be more modern, less corrupt, more
genuinely democratic.

I don't hold out much hope. The Ponta army will be out on Sunday and they will
ensure their man wins, and then we will go back to 1990, and every positive step
forward that Romania has made in the last 25 years will be shelved.  The party
will again rule, and the corrupt will walk free and safe in the knowledge that
their liberty to rip off the people is assured. 

Posted by Andy at 6:01 pm 6 comments:





FRIDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2014


ROMANIA'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS (2014 EDITION)


While the number of people in Romania continues to drop like a stone, the number
of people who want to be the President of those who are left seems to be rising
just as fast.  At some point at this rate there will be as many Presidential
candidates as there are people.

This autumn's election features no fewer than 14 candidates. Including some
people who clearly just want to do battle over the odd 0.1 of a percentage point
with each other.  We have, for example, two candidates who purport to represent
the Hungarian minority.  In some ways there is a logic to that, because since
the UDMR's candidate is not ever (ever) going to get into the second round,
"splitting the vote" of the Hungarians doesn't really matter and it gives the
other party a chance to challenge without being accused of treachery to the
Hungarian cause.  We also have two extreme right wing candidates who used to be
the leading lights of the same xenophobic party, the PRM. But clearly they've
fallen out (possibly over whether the Hungarians are more dangerous than the
Jews or the other way round, or some such), and now Vadim Tudor and Funar are
going head to head in a battle to the death, a chance at the end of the voting
to wave their (no doubt minuscule) dicks at each other and proclaim themselves a
bigger shitstain on the Romanian flag than the other.

But enough of the minor candidates who stand as much chance of making the second
round as I do (even though I'm not standing).

On the 2nd of November voters will pick two candidates to run off against each
other 2 weeks later (unless of course someone gets 50%+ in the first round and
wins before that.  But that won't happen.) The favourite (in terms of the
polls), and the one who is virtually guaranteed to make the second round is the
current PM Victor Ponta.

Now Victor Ponta is, and I say this with absolute certainty, a complete dick. He
is the ultimate party apparatchik, the protege of Adrian Nastase, a man so
corrupt that he is actually doing time for it (almost unheard of in Romania)
Nastase in turn is the protege of Ion Iliescu. The whole house of cards is as
bent as a paperclip.  Ponta, you may remember, was also the man who cheated on
his PhD thesis, plagiarising large chunks of it and then denying that he had,
and when it was proved, he refused to resign anyway.  After all, why should one
be excluded from high office just for being a proven liar and cheat? Ponta's
hubris of late has even extended to him hosting a rally in his own honour on his
own birthday in the national stadium. Something that his political grandfather
Iliescu learned from being Ceausescu's right hand man I suspect. Craig at
Bucharest Life has a good summary - with pictures - of the whole desperate
event. I'm not sure how one can build the cult of personality around someone who
apparently has none, but anyway.  It was deeply revolting.  (By the way, the
media - particularly it seems the foreign media, present Ponta as the left wing
candidate.  he is not.  Unless a socially illilberal populist xenophobe can be
considered left wing. In UK terms he is as left wing as Nigel Farage)

Who might face Ponta in the run off?  Well the current money is on Klaus
Iohannis, the mayor of Sibiu. Iohannis seems sort of not bad. He's clearly done
a good job in Sibiu (though it's a big step up from running a smallish city to
running a country), he's not a party apparatchik, being a physics teacher
originally (and most pleasingly from my perspective, he's married to an English
teacher).  I can't help feeling that there is a bit of a cultural cringe at play
here though. "Well, clearly we're not to be trusted to run our own country so
perhaps we can persuade this German bloke to do it for us". To me, however, he's
a bit of an enigma. What kind of president would he be?  No-one knows.  Would he
be better than Ponta? Hell yeah.  [Ponta, by the way, "left winger" that he
supposedly is, has launched attacks on Iohannis based on his ethnicity and his
religion]

The only other two candidates who get much of a mention in polling are Călin
Popescu-Tăriceanu and Monica Macovei. The former is an ex Prime Minister and one
of the few long standing national politicians in the country that I have any
time for.  The latter is a former justice minister and the face of the
anti-corruption efforts in Romania. She has been, I feel, excellent in that
role, and has genuinely given anti-corruption investigators teeth, and has set
out her stall to do something about it. She won't win unfortunately. (There's
some old case involving both Mocovei and Tariceanu, which means that while they
used to work together successfully they now seem to be in one of the many feuds
that characterise Romanian politics).

All in all, the three possible people who might oppose Ponta in the run off
represent about the only three national politicians in Romania that I actually
partially trust. So, it could work out well. But Ponta leads the polls quite
significantly and with the PSD's grass roots actions (which is to say they
basically run many villages in Romania and will "get out the vote" in the way
that they used to when they were the Communist Party), the stronger possibility
is that Ponta will win.  But you know, we can always hope.




Posted by Andy at 10:29 am No comments:



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