Andrei Pleșu, Dilema.ro: War and Peace

For months (years?) now, Romania has been offering Romanians (and the whole world) an incomparable native version of a theme of planetary significance: the conflict (from "debate" to "war"). The conflict seems to be the true engine of universal history. We cannot evolve without drastic options, and we cannot have options without radically assuming them, without "fighting for them." OK, there is also "dialogue," there are also "concessions," there are also temporary "conciliatory" measures, but a furrow deeper down always reveals the tension of rupture. Contemporary Romania tends to become, for war analysts, an inexhaustible source of "raw material." With a plethora of specific "notes." A bit of frivolity, but also Dacian frowns, incompatible radicalisms, mediocrity, or advantageous agreements.

From Tolstoy we move to Caragiale... I do not want to say that the entire local political landscape is of ridiculous homogeneity. There are also honorable episodes, intelligent combatants, and not necessarily "interested" parties, an authentic need for normality, good intentions, and compatible projects (I even think of a PSD member: the mayor of Buzău, Constantin Toma).. But, unfortunately, if we refer strictly to the immediate present, what predominates is the muddling of the political scene, the incoherence of "ideology," the inflation of sufficient self-portraits, rhetorical mediocrity, and sleep-inducing predictability alternating with shocking surprises. Politics is a struggle for the privileges of power, but it presents itself as disinterested patriotism. And the rhetorical and behavioral style of public actors is approximate, sometimes imposing militaristic, sometimes cordially peripheral.

The Romanian voter is in a state of blockage. Who to vote for, when all the party "teams" dance sometimes with the left, sometimes with the right, when they all aspire to power not to do, but to smile sovereignly? They do not want efficiency, they want prestige. They do not want to deliver, they want to be delivered to... It is good that those on stage do not know (either) history, so they can still be ashamed (or perhaps feel more responsible and more intensely motivated), thinking of the multitude of ancestors in whose hands the country was in other times... In those times when prime ministers were Mihail Kogălniceanu, Ion Ghica, Ion C. Brătianu, George Cantacuzino, Take Ionescu, Petre P. Carp, Iuliu Maniu, Nicolae Iorga, Gh. Tătărescu, and others of the same stature. Political disputes could not show, then, among such people, what today’s disputes among contemporary "celebrities" look like... I do not want to seem attached to my own political biography, but I dare, however, to mention a few colleagues from the first post-revolutionary government: Sergiu Celac, Mihai Șora, Victor Babiuc, Traian Băsescu, Th. Stolojan, Bogdan Marinescu, Cătălin Zamfir, Eugen Dijmărescu, Niculae Spiroiu, Constantin Fota, Mihai Chirică, etc. When I became Minister of Culture, I did not know any of them, but I rarely felt surrounded by strangers or by ambitious "champions."

In the Romanian space, war is not really war, just as peace is not really peace. What the "combatants" seek is a tough profile, but with accommodating features, or a false but profitable alliance. Stylistically, things appear either tragicomic, or playful, or exemplary... It is unclear whether it is a political struggle, a theatrical one, pure scenography, or peripheral embellishment. When I look at the "news," I do not see ideological, strategic, or orientational tensions. I only see a virile party (plus Olguța...) or the probing of a "tug" from which everyone can win or only radical swimmers can lose. I do not witness the assumed confrontation between multiple projects, I do not witness a match between distinct convictions, between idealistic options or circumstantial tricks, between coherent "camps" dedicated to beneficial solutions for all, regardless of the supporting gang. The general spectacle resembles a neighborhood brawl. I rather have the impression that I am witnessing a scuffle between Berceni and Floreasca, between Drumul Taberei and Izvor, between Obor and Cotroceni... It is not about politics, but about preferential placement, about regional turf, about provincial pride and "sovereignist" trading. What will come of this? War? Peace? War and peace? Boredom? Despair? Wandering? Elections? (between whom and whom?) We cannot know! But let us at least keep our humor, hope, honesty, behavioral civility, and sanitary distance... In the rest, let us entertain ourselves a little with Nicușor...

https://www.dilema.ro/situatiunea/razboi-si-pace