A year before the elections, PSD and PNL started an election campaign and are fighting corporations that are “enemies of the people” for the benefit of Romanians. Apart from AUR, which is promoting its anti-system politics and moving towards the old PRM electorate, on the Romanian political scene, PSD and PNL have already entered the electoral logic and are trying to play the dangerous card of nationalism.

On the one hand, the PSD prepares its government program and launches a debate on the introduction of a solidarity tax on large companies, pointing the finger at how they “accumulated wealth” and “obtained huge profits” on the backs of Romanians.

At the beginning of 2023, PSD President Marcel Čolaku wrote on his Facebook page that “a solidarity tax is needed in Romania for everything that means the wealth accumulated against the backdrop of the crisis of the last two years, due to truly unrealized profits.”

Marcel Ciolacu said that under the leadership of the PSD, “the state will gather the necessary resources to help both the millions of Romanians who are facing a cost of living crisis and Romanian companies, especially SMEs.”

On the other hand, the PNL understood that in order to keep up with the electorate, it had to raise the issue of the solidarity tax. After exchanging public remarks in which the liberals said they did not agree with the solidarity tax, PNL First Vice-President Rares Bohdan came to the fore in the OMV tax scandal and accused large corporations of “simply defying the Romanian state and extracting profits across borders for years, and no one does anything.”

The subject of the solidarity tax is only the latest example, as both the PSD and the PNL have recently been competing in increasingly nationalistic approaches.

Another episode worth mentioning is the one with PNL MP Pavel Popescu, who threatened laws against Austrian and Dutch companies in front of the JAI Council if Romania was not accepted into Schengen. And the list of nationalist positions and statements can be continued.

Another topic that is heavily speculated by politicians is the “land of shekels”. A few days ago, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bohdan Aurescu, summoned the Hungarian ambassador in Bucharest to provide explanations regarding the statements of the president of the foreign policy committee of the Hungarian Parliament regarding Romania’s alleged restriction of the right to fly the flag of the so-called Szeklerland.

Nationalism and patriotism in Romanian politics – what it means and what consequences they can have

The topic of fighting foreigners is not new in Romanian politics. Corneliu Vadim Tudor used this successfully in the 90s, a camouflaged form of anti-capitalism justified by social or national elements. Also here and here we find “conspiracy of transnational companies” and “conspiracy of foreigners”.

“Nationalism is not patriotism, but a closed feeling of hostility towards others, while patriotism is an expression of a sense of complete belonging, which does not involve the elimination of others. Nationalists stereotype many things, they do not develop critical thinking, they do not develop citizenship. Nationalists renounce their citizenship and simply become part of a tribe, primitive forms of political participation. Some politicians want to use them when they want to get votes easily,” political scientist Cristian Pirvulescu explains to HotNews.ro.

Pirvulescu draws attention to the fact that PSD and PNL are misaligned and speculating on conspiracy theories under the umbrella of nationalism and patriotism.

• “We see that the head of the Research Institute calmly explains to us that nationalism is good and even liberally promoted. To justify his theory, he quotes Fukuyama as saying something similar (Helvig probably took it out of context). It is worth noting that Helvig’s speech is the basis of the speeches of politicians focused on patriotic values, as an important speech for strengthening national unity. This is a 19th century discourse that has no effectiveness in the 21st century. This is proof of political dilettantism,” the political scientist explains.

What are the chances that PSD and PNL will count nationalist messages in the votes?

Cristian Pirvulescu believes that PSD and PNL will not win if they march with an ultra-populist message. The anti-system electorate will not vote for PSD and PNL, because it will be taken over by a PRM clone and its modern version – AUR: “The system parties have fallen into the trap of cheap votes and will deceive themselves, because the cheap votes will go to those who deserve to be trusted, standing for such message”

The political scientist draws attention to the fact that politicians make mistakes and incorrectly focus on the number of followers in social networks. “Politicians of systemic parties confuse the number of followers in social networks, in Tik-Tok, with voters who agree with them. It has nothing to do with those who follow the politician and the votes he will give. A causal relationship between these things has not been established. If they look, they will see that the same people are open to politicians who have diametrically opposed positions. In other words, it’s just a gesture to confirm some stereotypes, and a policy based on stereotypes is a dangerous policy. Politics is rational, not emotional,” explains Pirvulescu.

The professor also notes that politicians who “confuse online with real life and swearing with votes do not understand that political life is built on the grassroots with party fighters.”

What does public perception and social reality look like?

The strategy of the systemic parties PSD and PNL starts with the measurements and analysis that are reflected in the polls, as shown by the social reality and Romanians’ expectations of the political class and rulers. Political parties know that recently the perception of the population shows, to varying degrees, a return to nationalism.

Director of INSCOP Reserch Remus Ștefureac notes that according to the 2022 sociological analysis, two thirds of Romanians, 75% to be exact, believe that the Romanian economy is controlled by foreign companies.

“Parties gather information from society, perceptions, perceptions, expectations and collective fears and turn them into political messages, into positions and then into public policy,” Inscop Research Director Remus Štefureak explains to HotNews.ro.

The evolution of public perception in recent years indicates a varying degree of return to nationalism. There is a section of the population that is a minority that has more extreme views and attitudes. This is a pool of 15%-20% of the population that is captured and exploited by the AUR.

• “75% of Romanians believe that the economy is controlled by foreign companies for the benefit of other countries. There are conspiratorial tendencies, but there are also objective realities related to the presence of foreign capital in Romania, but there are also nuances. Two-thirds of Romanians believe that foreign companies give better salaries than Romanian ones and bring added value thanks to the investments they make in the Romanian economy. We are not talking about the extremist or extreme attitude of the majority of the population, but we are talking about the legitimate expectation of everything that means national interests, which can be seen in the public policy and economy of Romania,” explains Remus Štefureac.

The director of Inscop emphasizes, however, that these trends do not undermine Romanians’ trust in the European Union and Romanians’ commitment to NATO and the EU. “We noticed a collapse and a share of Romanians who would like RO-EXIT, the exit of Romanians from the European Union. If two years ago this growth was about 25%, today we are talking about percentages that go up to 10%,” the sociologist explains.

In other words, Romanians expect greater competence from the political class to transform national interests into economic policies beneficial to the population.

How Romanians see political responsibility and how politicians should apply it

The poll found that Romanians want “much stronger protection of national interests in the European Union, like all other states, and I feel that Romania does not protect its interests very effectively.”

• “This is a criticism of the representations of Romania, it is also a wish regarding how we know how to promote our own agenda in the EU. It is here that the expectations are highest, and here the major parties must offer a moderate approach, because the drift to the extremes and populism associated with, let’s say, nationalist tendencies, will only distort the legitimate expectations of the population and, instead of offering a solution that is pragmatic for the promotion of national interests offers bread and spectacles that will not help anyone,” the sociologist explains.

At the same time, the director of INSCOP Reserch points out that instead of attacking companies with foreign capital, politicians should talk more about what corporate governance included in state-owned companies means, since performance does not correlate with political appointments on boards of directors. .administration”.

“A responsibility of this type and the promotion of the national interest would mean just that. Let’s talk about the creation of big companies, let’s encourage private investors from Romania through coherent policies and policies related to everything that means efficiency in a market economy,” concludes Štefuriak.

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