Presidential Elections in Romania: Reviving the Civil Society

Klaus Iohannis celebrates at University Square in Bucharest
 after winning the presidential elections.
Photo rtve.es

“We are not holding much hope for being able to vote today. But you can vote back home. We have come out here so that everyone can see, and we will stand here as long as it takes.”

This message was one of many that flooded the Internet on the 16th of November as thousands of Romanians living abroad queued once again outside their embassies and cultural institutes in major European cities waiting to cast their vote in the final tour of the Romanian presidential election. The insufficient number of polling stations in cities as big as London, Paris, or Munich resulted in thousands of Romanians being unable to vote on both tours of the election. This sparked massive protests in the home cities of Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara, as well as the highest turnout on the final day of elections since 1996.

Solidarity with the Romanian diaspora and a strong aversion toward the ruling communist-descended PSD party have enabled the victory of center-right candidate Klaus Iohannis, who won with a surprising 54.8 percent against the 45.2 percent taken by the acting prime-minister Victor Ponta. Ponta was the favorite to win after the first tour elections revealed a comfortable 10 percent advantage over contender Klaus Iohannis.

The events that have taken place over the last two weeks meant more than just choosing between two presidential candidates. What occurred signaled the emergence of a new understanding of the role of civil society for democracy in a country that had seemed to slip into a resigned apathy when faced with widespread corruption that took hold of it after the fall of communism. The political events that ensued after 1989 had slowly pushed the public into a state of alienation in which one across-the-board conviction reigned: “they (the politicians) will do whatever they want no matter what we (the general public) do.”

This presidential campaign saw a surprising involvement from civil society groups, particularly on social media platforms, where the main message focused on the people’s capacity to prompt change. Events organized on Facebook turned into protests demanding Ponta’s resignation as prime-minister for the failure to adequately organize the elections in the diaspora, who were known to vote against him and his party. “I have no reason to step down,” Ponta told a local TV station.

The elected president will face a hostile parliamentary majority currently dominated by Victor Ponta’s party, which could cause serious policy disputes and further the country’s instability.

Nevertheless, this vote and the events around it have given encouraging signs of Romania’s political maturity: the maturity to elect a president that is part of an ethnic and confessional minority -Klaus Iohannis is an ethnic German who is openly protestant in a predominantly orthodox country, something that his opponent has tried to use against him in the campaign; the maturity to stand up to a political system that would hinder its own citizens’ right to vote; and most importantly, the maturity to understand the active role that civil society has to play in a working democracy.

Isabella Trifan (Philosophy, Romania)