These days, Romania’s Social Democrat Party (PSD) elected their new board and president. Their old leader Mircea Geoana was replaced (after, or perhaps, because of having been defeated in the presidential elections) by the younger Victor Ponta.
I’m not interested much here in the consequences that this changeover might have for PSD (shortly, I think this is a positive turn, and will have beneficial effects for them). What striked me during the days that preceded the election and the days after, was the huge amount of interest and debates in Romanian media.
Particularly, I was intrigued by the fact that most, if not all, of the questions, were of the type ‘who?’, istead of ‘what?’
And this happens in all type of elections in Romania, and indeed in all type of political events. Who is going to have this or that position? Who is going to win? Who is going to fall? Nobody seems interested in this country in such questions as, what is to be done? What changes are needed for this society? How do we want to live in the future?
Follow any political debate on any Romanian TV channel, then follow any soccer debate on any Romanian TV channel. You’ll be surprised how similar they are. You just have to replace the subjects of the sentences (political actors vs. football actors), an you’ve translated one dircourse into the other.
No wonder that many men involved in the football industry are also involved in politics. No wonder that many soccer commentators are also political commentators.
Romanian society revolves around who, not around what. It is subject-centred, not action-centred. What matters in Romanian politics is the meaning of the subject, not the meaning of the verb.
Actions and verbs don’t even need to be mentioned (and are mentioned rarely), because they are self-contained in the subjects; they are taken-for-granted. When they do use verbs (rarely, in their official discourses), they lie anyway.
Is this fact roted in Romania’s too-long tradition of personality cults (Ceausescu, Antonescu, etc.)? I don’t know. And I’m not sure whether it’s possible to change this style, either. Maybe these new young leaders will try and impose
