Every year on January 24, a ritual takes place on Unity Square in Iasi. It was like that for a long time. On the stage set up in front of the Trajan Hotel, next to the statue of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, politicians from Bucharest and other parts of the country stood next to politicians from Iași, heads of central, county and local institutions, church leaders. , people in uniform.

Military and religious rites were performed, speeches were made, a choir sang, ed kissed youyou likeindependentand, patriotic and/or folk music was played, pies and tea were distributed. And that was about it. For a year, the city on the hills could be a forgotten political and administrative center.

Changes have taken place over a period of time. Not only clumsy speeches of the great, but also challenges from a very diverse public were heard on the Square. As one friend observed, the Square is becoming a dangerous place for politicians, a place where those who come must risk having things shouted in their faces that they don’t want to hear. The authorities seem to have internalized a certain fear, so they have taken measures to control the space and the people.

Choreography noţNational Committeecomplexetand shouts

The entire event this year was based on the North Korean style. Those who arrived at the square earlier were impressed by the military equipment. There were dozens of meters and several rows of metal fences between the official tribune, where the big ones were supposed to stand, and the unprivileged public, not protected by parties and institutions. Groups of gendarmes and people from shadowy structures – either sepepists or sereists, because they were all in civilian clothes and did not wear any identification signs – blocked access to the central part of the square. Some gendarmes tried to be nice, others were quite arrogant and inadequate, full of the importance of their presence. In secret structures, they frowned, trying to intimidate.

When asked why access was denied, all guards, in uniform and without, referred to the “reservation” of the square by the authorities. References to the Constitution, the rights of citizens, including assembly in public space, caused surprise and irritation. They all hid behind orders, referring to prohibitions and obedience. As if we were in the wrong place, and instead of Piata Unirii we ended up on Piata Roșie. There were snipers on the surrounding buildings.

The official demonstrations were again a mixture of national-communist choreography and mass riots. Politicians with low education and dubious tastes use the holiday for PR purposes. The goal is to anesthetize the electorate. Celebration seems to hide behind the hills when it comes to public celebration. Before the arrival and after the departure of the officials, music of various registers sounded on the square. It seems that Kichul dominates here as well.

According to some estimates, there were a total of about 7,000 people in the area of ​​Pieța Unirii in Iasi. Probably, about a tenth of it was made up of employees of law enforcement agencies. There were very different people behind the fences. Some were from Iași, others came from other counties of Moldova, as well as from Bucharest, Brasov, Sibiu, Maramures, etc. Some were proposed by parties, both PNL and PSD, but especially AUR. The latter started in front of the Palace of Culture, crossed Stefan cel Mare Boulevard and tried to break into the central part of Union Square. They did not succeed, the gendarmes pushed them into an easily controlled area.

They were present – for st. Arch, towards the Junimea bookstore – and members of the public associations Movement for the Development of Moldova, Together for A8 and Reset. But there is no doubt that the majority were people who came out of curiosity, even out of habit. It was easy to see that there were very few young people, a few parents with children or grandparents with grandchildren, one or two organized school groups.

The impostor scene

At the official stand were the president of the Chamber of Deputies, the prime minister, several ministers, state secretaries, parliamentarians of the PNL, PSD, AUR, USR, as well as local politicians from Iasi and other constituencies, including the president of the Iasi County Council and the mayor of the city of Iasi, heads of institutions, people in different uniforms. A real collection of figures. Not from wax, but from political caricatures. High density of imposters as another friend said. The gathering there showed broad complicity within the party and state system. Two politicians – the head of the AUR and the president of the PSD of Iași – wore sumanas, like others, in the interwar period. To protect sensitive officials from the cold, the tribune was heated with a special installation. Contrary to what some have claimed, there were also a few women on the scene – very few indeed – but they were all well hidden behind the great men of the nation.

Klaus Iohannis was the biggest absentee. The distance between Bucharest and Iași is too great, and the president is too comfortable. He had no reason to travel to a region where he had set foot only a handful of times during his long tenure, mostly to talk idle talk and garner votes.

motto and official promises

Some of those present made speeches on the official platform. The same politicians drew special attention. With the presence in Iasi of the two central leaders of the PSD and the PNL, partners in the government, this was probably intended to maintain a balance in terms of public image. Marcel Çolaku and Nicolae Chouquet referred to the past, which they roughly know, but selectively (the former referred to the “small union”, a frankly bad formula), they called for unity, in fact a form, to soften and even reject criticism from society . Since they have nothing more to say, they repeated the same promises that we heard from their predecessors in the past years when they came to Iaşi, especially regarding economic growth and living standards, reducing the development gap between regions, particularly through the construction of highways.

Centralist politicians claim that they want to help Moldova, to bring it out of isolation. This is pure hypocrisy. As if they themselves or their parties in the last decades when they were in government were not to blame for this. We know that responsibility does not exist even in their imagination. The background of politics is full of nonsense, from which slogans and promises are always heard at patriotic demonstrations and in the permanent election campaign.

When he was loudly booed, Mr. Cholaku told those in the square that he loved them. I have no doubt that those on the fence knew that when ex-rower Liviu Dragnea tells you this, you should be on the defensive, not relaxed.

Mr. Chuke mentioned the danger of extremism lurking in Romania. The referral was made to the AUR, even if it was not named directly. Both PNL and PSD agree with the existence of AUR. This is not the first time this has happened in our recent history. There were also PRM, PUNR and PSM, structures of national-communist origin. It is about identifying an opponent who will allow the parties in power to be on the good side of the political scene, convenient self-justification. The nationalist and sovereignist trend is greater than the presidents of the two parties of the ruling coalition allow us to understand. They easily overlook the extremist errors of many pesedists and panelists, including some leaders and message spreaders, as seen over the years. Compare the speeches and public appearances of gold players George Simion and Sorin Lavrik with the speeches and public appearances of panelists Rares Bohdan and Mihai Kirika or pasedists Mihai Tudose and Olguci Vasilescu. Read the whole article and comment on Contribuotrs.ro