Value contradictions or misunderstandings?

Since the beginning of September, INSCOP has made public several figures, either from the survey commissioned by Polithink or from the barometer of informat.ro. And more will follow, especially seasonal ones, if we are to look at what is happening around us and, moreover, in our region.

In short, there remains a somewhat strange constant association between the still majority preference for Europe and Western values and the increasing percentage of those who, in various forms, tell us that they want more sovereignty in Europe. As has been commented on regarding our surveys, although the sovereignist vote has been increasing in recent years, the preference for EU membership has remained above 50% under conditions where the indicator has suffered badly across Europe, the true constant seems to remain this value ambiguity. We know from the INSCOP-Polithink survey from September that 52% of Romanians do not see the EU as a limiting factor for our sovereignty, while 38% believe that EU membership limits our independence. Of course, the question needs to be nuanced. Almost 20 years of belonging to the "common European home," as it was said in the past, have taught us that Romanians appreciate two things about this membership status: the freedom of movement and the possibility to work abroad. These are objective facts, attested by many surveys from various sources over the long term.

The discussion about values is more sophisticated and more subjective. So it does not mean that 38% of Romanians no longer want to be in Europe, but it means that certain messages that European policies have conveyed in recent years have not been to the public's liking. Or, in a paradigm of disinformation, it means that certain messages have pleased the public, convincing people that from the West come who knows what horrors. In itself, the phenomenon is very interesting, if it were not serious. The European Union was built on facts and risks losing its identity, as they say, on words… Very similar to what is happening in the electoral processes in almost every member state.

It is clear that we are going through very contradictory times in terms of values and, especially, times in which values fail to translate reality. As I said on another occasion, major social movements do not necessarily occur when reality is unbearable, but rather when the gap between expectations and reality is too great.

Many are surprised that, as Romanians have adapted to life in the EU space, its attractiveness is starting to fail us too, especially compared to the years immediately before or after accession. It is normal. The EU is no longer "the place to be." How many EU flag badges do we still see hanging from Romanians' clothes on the street? There is a global trend to rediscover a collective self and to value it. It is not just us. Nevertheless, 83% of Romanians believe that EU membership is a positive thing.

65-66% of Romanians believe that the decision-making power of states in the EU should increase. Here there is a slight cognitive dissonance, given that domestic political institutions still "benefit" from lower trust than international ones. 88% of Romanians believe that our country should play a more important role on the international stage, whatever that means…

This return to the local-global, national-European battle, as in the 90s, is at least strange. Do we want something, or are we against what has been until now? Are we rejecting the global, or are we not questioning the fact that globalization is not just something purely theoretical? Back when we were masters of our resources, so to speak, we had limits on gas consumption, the power would go out daily, and you would wait, if you were lucky in life, three years in line for a Dacia 1310 car. And there was neither meat in stores nor as much variety of alcohol to at least drown your sorrows. What many miss is that the anti-system, sovereignist message does not go in this direction. It does not translate into concrete terms.

I fear that here we are not talking about ambiguities and value options. Perhaps there is no "sovereignty vs. Europe" in people's minds. Here we are talking about a lack of definitions and about the failure to explain certain concepts and the realities they designate. Most likely, some concrete problems and some grievances are transferred into ideologies that build so much around them, until they divert them. Just as, perhaps, the idea of Europe has not been sufficiently explained, beyond the right to work and free movement.