For more than ten years I have been creating cultural bridges between Romania and Austria. For more than ten years, I have been organizing conferences, joint seminars, summer schools, study visits in both directions, writing and teaching about Romanian literature and its European and world destiny. Dozens of teachers and students from Austria and Romania traveled in both directions, got to know each other, had a dialogue and discussed their deeply European cultural values. They sat at the same table, with the same rights and responsibilities. For ten years, I have traveled across a European map that is still divided by political borders, but where dozens of people involved in joint projects have crossed their ethnic and cultural borders. And, like me, there are many, many people who still believe in such general values ​​and who have been convinced that the nationalist, retrograde and antiquated rhetoric of the 19th century has outlived its term. That the time has come for a new, fairer, less…exclusive world. I hoped to the last that we could find a solution together so that these borders, which today wound our pride like barbed wire, would disappear. They are completely anachronistic. However, on December 8, populist politics won again in the EU, which is becoming increasingly weak and increasingly vulnerable to authoritarianism. The very principle of total, 100% voting is anachronistic and unworkable because it is open to external manipulation and games, and because it blocks any action, any real, practical reform.

I see around me how millions of Romanians are trying to find the reason for this sudden, unexpected, irrational and cruel exclusion. Millions already travel and live in the EU, taking an active, honest and direct part in the functioning of the countries where they have chosen to live. In Austria we are of course aware of the situation of thousands of people who care for the elderly, there are many others who do vital functional work without which Austria would hardly function. Without it, tens of thousands of people would actually have to reform. Their salary is small, but their work is invaluable. Are they increasing the number of asylum seekers mentioned by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Internal Affairs? These are the ones who are despised and humiliated by this way of conducting politics. It is they who always thicken the infernal queues at the borders. What explanations can they find? All these people who work in Austria, those who transport goods to/from Austria and Romania, simple and hardworking people who are kept for hours on the side of the border road, pickpocketing like pickpockets on the edge of some empire? What answer can irresponsible but populist politicians give them? That there are 75,000 unregistered asylum seekers in Austria through Romania, because of them, economic asylum seekers who arrived via the Balkan route, a route that does not go through Romania anyway? That the EU’s external borders are not working in Romania, although the official data of “Frontex” (the European Border Police and Coast Guard Agency) says otherwise? That now, in this migration context, it is necessary not to expand the Schengen area, but to revise it, although during his recent visit Prime Minister Nehammer assured the Croatian authorities that they would support their entry, a fact that has already happened? All of these arguments collapse here like a house of cards in a simple analysis of discourse versus reality. Now, in such moments of global and European crisis, millions of us are looking for logical answers that do not really exist. And from here the road opens wide to suspicions, big and small suspicions. Unpleasant suspicions that other borders pose. We suspect cynical populism ahead of the January 2023 local elections in Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), where the chancellor’s right-wing ÖVP party is in crisis and needs an infusion of anti-immigration radicalism. We suspect underground connections with the regime of aggressor oligarchs in Moscow, and “Njet!” came straight from the Kremlin. This is also because Romania’s position is extremely clear and hostile to Russian aggression in Ukraine and because Romania has an exemplary attitude to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. Well done they are! There is no such thing as neutrality in wartime. We suspect hidden economic interests related to natural resources. We suspect everything about those who reject us because we do not understand. And suspicion, mistrust lead to hostility, denial, distancing and division.

Also, I have never seen a greater wave of anti-Austrian anger in Romania. And this saddens and frightens me at the same time. The risk is to generalize, because when there are no arguments, there are only suspicions, the reasons are unclear, this whole wave of disappointment, this emotional tsunami, generated by the earthquake of political ostracism, pours out on everyone, on the majority of simple and honest people. , who believe in Romanian. This is the biggest risk. Strong arguments in favor of integration no longer matter, they are not comforting: it no longer matters that Romania actively participates in European dynamics, that Romanian border guards ensure stability despite enormous efforts and traffic jams for tens of kilometers. The reality is that, whether politicians like it or not, we are already Europeans. And the decision of the Austrian government is not the decision of Austrians. Furthermore, the ÖVP decision only partially applies to Romania. In the populist strategy of politicians, Romania coincides only with the definition of the cause, the imaginary common evil to which they say NO. But, paradoxically, this “NO” is equally directed against the Austrians and against their European destiny. This form of historical, irrational authoritarianism is extremely harmful and will lead to isolation and many ethnic prejudices, generalizing which is reprehensible. After people return from long vacations, without queues at Croatian borders, after Russian imperialist magnetism collapses like a sandcastle next year, after the elections are over and the ÖVP is still in power, then what will there be objections? A family, a neighbor, a friend, an orderly, a supermarket worker and a construction worker, a woman who cares for lonely elderly people, i.e. all those respectful, simple and hard-working people who participate in the normal functioning of the world, will all be “Ausländer”. Our “Ausländer” is our neighbor. In addition, it is a decision against Austrians who are present in Romania in various joint actions, open and involved in economic, social and cultural cooperation with Romanians. And I don’t just mean the borders, which after the pandemic Austria has rethought its border anyway, so we’re guessing they’ve also failed to stem the flow of migrants, as politicians claim. I am referring to the serious deficit of image and credibility caused by the decision of two politicians on December 8, at the risk of generalization. When we witness deep crises (war, pandemic, economy), when humanity suffers and closes down, becomes hostile, we must show the opposite, not close it even more. It was the great European project, the inclusive project so hated and envied by authoritarian neighbors everywhere. The results achieved by fueling ethnic prejudices, inciting fear of the “foreigner”, the illusion of conservation and neutrality, foaming nationalist speeches will be as short as smoke. They will quickly disappear, and when the fumes of politicians dissipate, we will see that we have actually been together for a long time, side by side, extremely similar, with many similar values. We will see that we can find solutions to what divides us, that we need each other very much, and that there is nothing worse for nations than to exclude themselves. But I’m afraid it won’t be too late for all of us as long as we are at war with each other, when we become skeptical and suspicious. When you live with the belief that no one needs you, that fact can create a long, long distance. Who needs such a distance? “He who sows the wind will reap the storm!” – we say. The storm is European populism, which is spreading like a malignant tumor and will throw us into the arms of tyrants. And Europe cannot forget that the authoritarianism of past centuries led to terrible wars, famine, terrible crimes, gas chambers, gulags of extermination. Millions of victims of nationalist populism haunt our shared past.

“I’m angry too!” – suddenly said Minister of the Interior Karner, who was always supported by Prime Minister Nehammer as a brave assistant. It is too little, too late and a great irony for Romanians and Austrians. I have a great chance: I look at this European crisis both from the inside and from the outside. If Austrians are what I have known them to be for the past ten years, tough and concerned about social justice, they should ask these politicians to go, who not only do not represent them, but are doing them a great disservice. Because a wonderful European service has been created for them. Inadequate, as if dressed in medieval soldier’s armor, to the “Ninth Symphony” of Ludwig van Beethoven, the political representatives of Austria gave a cynical slap to the other 25 participating countries of the European concert “Odes to Joy”. Read the entire article and comment. on Contributors.ro