Rumanian President seeks more than "capital of sympathy"
On November 17th Romania turned a very important page in its history by electing Emil Constantinescu as president, giving the country its first anti-Communist government since 1947. It may seem like a strange role for an academician trained as a geologist. However, his destiny is not unique but rather one shared with many other intellectuals of former European Communist countries.
In December of 1989, he was on the streets demonstrating. In April of the following year, after being elected rector of Bucharest university, he spoke from the university’s balcony to huge crowds of demonstrators. Afterwards he was elected leader of several civic organizations before becoming the candidate to lead a coalition of political parties. In the 1992 elections he was defeated, but in November 1996 he won.
He sees his role as similar to that of many of his colleagues in other countries: an opportunity for intellectuals to play their part at a moment of great and historic change. Czech playwright Vaclav Haval was one of the first such intellectuals to take on political responsibility, first as president of Czechoslovakia from 1989-1992 and then as president of the Czech Republic in 1993.
Judging from his words, he regards this role as transitory, filling a vacuum that was left by the Communists who were the former professional politicians which will later be filled by the real professionals of political democracy. His destiny is the same as many other Rumanian intellectuals who felt at a decisive moment that they had to take on direct responsibility.
The new president uses rather peculiar similes. In describing the condition of the economy when his government took over, he said it was locked into a state of draft projects. "The country was like a car that consumed more petrol to blow its horn than to turn the engine over or like a car that was signaling to turn right without actually doing so." Politically there was a lot of hesitancy between reform and continuing down the road of a centralized economy and this could only lead to a hesitant economy. The new government found a lot of internal debt, a system of ossified bureaucracy, and highly developed corruption. This discovery has shaped their policies and it is in these three areas that they have already begun to act.
He admits that the social shock of economic reforms is very hard on the population. Setting exchange rates free between the dollar and the Rumanian currency, the liberalization of prices, particularly energy prices, together with the introduction of financial discipline has led to the closure of unprofitable companies. All of this means higher prices and unemployment. The worst off are hit the hardest which has prompted the government to set up special welfare programs. Nevertheless, all of this is a heavy responsibility for the government because the outcomes of these reforms will be decisive for Rumania.
Three months after winning the electoral run-off against Ion Iliescu, Romanian President Emil Constantinescu has been touring European capitals in order to boost his country’s dampened image and lobby the international community for support. He has already had talks with the IMF and more recently he’s been to Brussels to meet the president of the European parliament and the commission president, Jacques Santer. He would like to turn the "capital of sympathy" that he has encountered into a "capital of credibility and the capital of credibility into financial capital."
His government is supported by a coalition with a 53% majority that merits to be taken seriously. The coalition brings together representative of the classic political families in Europe: Christian-Democrats, Liberals, Social-Democrats, all of whom are reformists and ecologists. They have already created a certain stability in inter-ethnic relations and between people of different religions. The decision to bring representatives of the Hungarian minority, which is their biggest minority, into the government was an historic one. Members of the Hungarian minority now occupy key governmental positions as ministers and regional prefects. At the same time all other minorities, even the smallest with only 1,000 members out of a total population of 23 million, are represented in parliament. They have periodic consultations with the president to resolve their problems This has been accomplished in order to address problems of internal security.
The new president seems interested in changing the reality of Rumania, not just its image, believing that the negative image that the country holds in the international community will only change when Rumania’s reality changes. Although Rumania already meets the official requirements for Nato, he is very pragmatic and realistic in evaluating their position. He knows that NATO welcomes countries that not only need security but that can offer security. He also seems to realize that the European Union is no charity and that in order to belong Rumania will have to meet certain economic criteria as well as social standards.
Playwright Vaclav Haval became president of Czechoslovakia in 1989. Writer and former dissident, Árpád Göncz, took his post as president of Hungary in 1990. Geologist and academician Emil Constantinescu has only been president of Rumania since November 1996. Whether he will be able to repeat the success stories of his predecessors remains to be seen. His choice of prime minister, however, certainly demonstrates his full determination to go ahead with reforms. The former mayor of Bucharest, Victor Ciorbea, is well known for his free-market thinking.
February 1997
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