Even though the press named it a visit, the adventure of the France President in Dracula’s country should be called a halt.
Even though the press named it a visit, the adventure of the France President in Dracula’s country should be called a halt. The guest got to Bucharest at noon, he went to lunch (which he could have done in the airplane, but he would have had to pay for it), he appeared in front of the media with Traian Basescu, he had a nip out to Calin Popescu Tariceanu, he climbed on the podium that our Parliament leaders brought there to make him feel as tall as de Gaulle and left. To Paris because his wife, whose boobs got all over the internet, was lonely.
In the press statement in Cotroceni, Nicolas Sarkozy made a cross reference to De Gaulle. Since Napoleon is too far back in time and because of the fact that he intended to conquer Europe, but not o unite it, the French Presidents like talking about De Gaulle. In the same way in which the Romanian politicians compare themselves with Nicolae Ceausescu. The difference between the Romanian politicians and the French ones is that the French don’t hide it, whereas the Romanians try to hide it. De Gaulle came to Romania when Ceausescu led the country.
Many people will be amazed of the cross reference of the French President to the one that a part of the present media calls the Odious. However, if one pays attention to the press statement in Cotroceni, to the speech in the Parliament, as well as to the facts that appeared with this halt in Bucharest, we will see that there isn’t such a great difference between them.
Marshal De Gaulle came to Romania in 1968 in a four-day visit (May 14th to 18th) aware of the fact that his gesture will help Ceausescu in being a personality of our era. The figuration imagined by De Gaulle involved the fact that we would think about his visit as a stroking on the head. This is the same way in which Nicolas Sarkozy prepared his visit to Traian Basescu’s Romania.
This way, Nicolas Sarkozy was convinced that his visit to Bucharest would be like a helping hand for Traian Basescu. Mr. President is facing an obvious international isolation. Since his actions aren’t coherent at all, the international political strategy of Traian Basescu is very poor. His visits during these three years of mandate as well as the receptions at Cotroceni have been rather random, but not in accordance to an established strategy. Therefore, Nicolas Sarkozy’s halt, the President who is already seen as a star of the world politics, can be an argument for Traian Basescu in proving he is not avoided by the important country leaders. Since a simple halt wasn’t enough to help Traian Basescu, Nicolas Sarkozy came to Bucharest with a document called the Romanian-French Strategic Partnership. As Valentin Stan showed on Antena 3 on Monday night, such a document is strange when it involves the two EU members. It seems this partnership is rather a symbolical one.
We can compare the symbolical signification of the gesture not just with the one of the Charles de Gaulle, who came to Romania in a period in which the Occident believed it was the time to support rebel Ceausescu in his fight against Moscow in 1968, but with the one of Francois Miterrand in April 1991 when he visited Romania to help Ion Iliescu get out of the international isolation that came after the 15th of June 1990. Under the same sign of the formal gestures that doesn’t cost a thing, the French President wanted to say beautiful, but empty words to the Romanians. He didn’t miss. In a unique gesture for the Dambovita Parliament members, they all hurried to vote for the Lisbon Treaty in the honor of the great guest. The French are extremely pragmatic when it comes to the relations with Romania. They always hurried to make extraordinary but empty gestures whenever they felt that the authorities in Bucharest needed their help because they knew that words don’t cost a thing in politics. The visits of the French presidents, in 1968 as well as in 1991, had extraordinary effects as far as the derogation that the French companies in Romania obtained afterwards. Even though the statements of the two didn’t have any economical aspects, this will certainly result in an “allowance” for Nicolas Sarkozy. Not only from Traian Basescu, but from all the Romanian politicians who behave like a tribe, the Dambovita Tribe.
• Translated by Sorin Bălan