What would Minister Vela have said if he had woken up with protesters about the state of emergency at the cabinet door? | Reviews | freedom

Opinion of
Cătălin Tolontan

All articles by the author.

Saturday, May 2, 2020, 12:59 p.m.

The state of Michigan has half the population of Romania and almost 4,000 coronavirus deaths. Detroit is the center of the epidemic, one of the worst in the United States.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer imposed the “stay home” restriction on March 24 and extended it until May 15.

At first dozens, then hundreds of people protested in front of the state legislature.

In recent days, protests have increased, not necessarily in scale, but in sharp protests. Some of the “rebels” carried the Confederate flag, others carried swastikas, and some managed to enter the Capitol armed.

What did the Governor do? He said that:

• Understand the frustration of those who are forced to stay home due to the need to fight COVID-19.
• He believes that the opinion of citizens is not the same as that of protesters and that therefore protesters cannot claim to represent the entire state as it is mandated to serve all citizens.
• He contented himself with calling the presence of gunmen outside his office “disturbing.”

Is it impossible not to think how the authorities in Bucharest would have reacted in a somewhat similar situation? In Michigan, but also in other American states, protests have been going on for more than a week.

“In the truck with the culture site!”

Of course, we put aside the issue of weapons, because their possession and transportation are illegal in Romania in the way that they are allowed in the United States.

But, beyond everything, it is about dialogue. The way in which citizen dissatisfaction is understood and accepted as legitimate in a democracy.

And if they appeared with their hands in their pockets in front of IGSU, reciting Nichita Stănescu from memory, the Romanian protesters would have inflated “in the van with the site of culture!”.

We are not talking about the presence at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry, because then the Roma and Hungarians who want to steal our Transylvania were directly guilty. We would have had living proof that it is a “coup,” as the PSD government shouted on August 10.

The truth is that political power has changed, but the fabric of the state remains as difficult to convince as it is to serve citizens.

President Iohannis is right, there have not been many incidents of police brutality, compared to the number of police, gendarmes, and soldiers on the street.

But what the president did not recognize is that the violence was directed at minorities, poor communities, those who have no voice to defend themselves or who have a bad image and, therefore, will not be believed.

Targeting takes the place of the phenomenon. It is more efficient.

As we can see, there have not been too many commissions to companies favorable to public procurement, because that has made the president understand.

But even when public money is spent, the targeting is remarkable. A former SRI official always appears in these companies.

All democracies know that governments have a historically proven habit of diminishing citizens’ rights in times of crisis. And then citizens react.

But not all democracies have enough money to spend on social media, to maintain the impression that anyone who is skeptical of Power wants to overthrow the state. Here, Bucharest is one of the world champions of hate speech sponsorship.

In our country, street bullying is widespread on Facebook.

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