The stated goal — to address prison overcrowding and avoid a European Union fine. The true goal — to pardon and protect a whole raft of loyal PSD politicians and public officials facing prosecution for crimes such as corruption in office (now decriminalized for sums less than $48,000) among a host of others (pardoned for sentences less than five years). [...]
The following night, three hundred thousand rallied, and on February 5, a day after the government rescinded its decree but indicated it would seek parliamentary approval for some of its original proposals, over half a million poured onto the streets of Bucharest angrily demanding the government’s resignation. Four days later, a scapegoat, the country’s justice minister, resigned. The protests continue with fifty thousand again assembled last weekend. [...]
The PSD, the ruling Communist Party of old, is the party par excellence of this crony capitalism. It played a pivotal role managing and overseeing the transition from the statist economy of the Cold War era to the privatized, neoliberal economy of today, while ensuring financial advantage for itself and its allies. It remains a key mediator of the sometimes brazenly incestuous relations between business and bureaucracy. In short, the PSD is the principal party of the Romanian ruling class. [...]
The arguments the Left will have to employ — the need to struggle against neoliberal austerity and corruption from below, to radically redistribute Romania’s wealth, to expropriate the country’s super-rich moguls, to challenge Romania’s relationship with the European Union and the United States, to support neutrality between east and west, to advocate the idea of a Balkan federation as the best defense against imperialism and nationalism — will be tough to make, for they signal a decisive break with the asphyxiating consensus of Balkan politics of the last quarter century.
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