By Enver Robelli
The political class, made up of established parties known by derogatory labels such as "social democrat" and "conservative," abuses power, engages in corruption, politicizes justice, instrumentalizes secret services, and tolerates them behaving like a state within a state in the battle for control of power, funds, and resources.
One day the people lose all faith in the established parties and trust a right-wing populist with a penchant for conspiracy theories, who demands that the West stop aid to Ukraine and praises Vladimir Putin. Romanian peasants say: we didn't even know who we were voting for, importantly: a vote against the parties that stole Romania. This happened in November last year. The Romanian political scene was shaken. Brussels was alarmed.
Then the Romanian judiciary annulled the presidential elections - among other things because of, as it was said, Russia's role in the electoral campaign. A repeat of the elections was set for May 4. The populist Călin Georgescu, who came first in the November elections, was banned from running. In his place, George Simion entered the race. This populist too. He also came first in the first round, on May 4. Voters again did not trust the established parties and their candidates. They trusted the populist George Simion.
A Romanian political scientist recently told a Swiss newspaper: “We are an oral society, an unliterary society. The number of newspaper readers is similar to 1915, a surprising continuity.” At the same time, Romania is the country with the deepest TikTok penetration in Europe. This is fatal: if in 2025 as many people in a country read quality information as in 1915, then the fate of a society falls prey to TikTok algorithms and unscrupulous “masters” of click generation.
The second round of the presidential election in Romania will be held on May 18. The race is open, with populist George Simion the favorite. His opponent will be Nicusor Dan, the non-partisan mayor of Bucharest.
The example of Romania should also alarm Kosovo and Albania. If a political class continuously plunders the country and if voters do not see a difference between parties, if the only competition is the competition of corruption, then one day voters become (i)rational and support political experiments, for example by entrusting the fate of the country to politicians who have no knowledge of politics, but a criminal talent for manipulating and promising quick solutions. Whoever deals with politics, with Res publica, that is, with public affairs, must keep one thing in mind in particular: credibility. It is easy to lose, hard to win. Especially when the elite is corrupted and the anti-elite of simple recipes enters the competition. (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
