As Alex Nedea reflects in his article „Voi merge la vot în ciuda ofertei” (2024)1: „We live in this country as though nothing could bring back the dictatorship we endured before 1989.”
The years spent in a state of entitlement to freedom and access to resources—of all kinds, including information—without utilizing these privileges ethically, responsibly, or with discipline, have led us to the present circumstances. A segment of Georgescu’s voters comprises individuals who have grown weary of self-imposed rules created solely to maintain a sense of community. Despite the increasing and seemingly futile burden of these self-impositions, I ultimately chose to vote for Lasconi. My reasoning is straightforward: no one forces me to impose rules upon myself. While I deeply wish others would impose rules upon themselves to ensure communal well-being, I prefer this to occur through freedom, free will, and a civic, ethical, and moral spirit.
Whether Georgescu’s leadership will enable such principles to be practiced or even aspired to under conditions of freedom remains an open question. Even under a leadership that promotes freedom, will citizens embrace self-imposed rules, refrains, or acts of abstention to ensure communal harmony?
In theory, a communist regime could implement a democratic system for electing a head of state. However, such a system has not been historically observed in Romania. Currently, Romania operates as a democratic regime, and Georgescu emerged as the majority winner in the first round of elections through democratic processes.
The votes Georgescu received were obtained democratically. To address dissatisfaction with this outcome, one might consider advocating for electoral reforms—for instance, the imposition of additional criteria that voters must meet beyond the current requirements (being of legal age, a Romanian citizen, and mentally competent).
The reemergence of a USSR-like threat at our borders has provoked fear, but it also provides an opportunity for reflection. I hope this situation will teach us the necessity of self-imposed ethical, civic, moral, responsible, disciplined, constructive, and consistent commitments. At the same time, I hope such commitments arise from individual liberty, not from authoritarianism.
1. Nedea, Alex. „Voi merge la vot în ciuda ofertei.” Alex Nedea, 2024, https://alexnedea.ro/voi-merge-la-vot-in-ciuda-ofertei/.
Emanuel Ștefancu 