Why PSD, PD-L, PNL, UDMR Will Not Get My Vote in the Upcoming European Elections

Romanians are called upon to vote soon in a race whose stakes are Romania's seats in the European Parliament.

I have tried to closely watch the election debates, but that proved a task so obnoxious that I had to give it up, eventually. One show - I heard Traian Basescu's name mentioned so often that I thought maybe I'd tuned in for the wrong show.

Usually, the discussions were centered around getting more European money to Romania (funny, though, it is well known there is plenty of European money available, just that Romania is incapable to spend it properly - and nobody mentioned anything to improve that capability), and usually moved on quickly to attacking, or defending, president Basescu. Bollocks.

Well - let me tell you what I'd like to hear in a debate.

Environment/Economy, with its offshoots:

• Global Warming


• Sustainable/Renewable Energy sources


• Green Jobs


• Accessing of European funds (currently, more than 50% of the money alloted by the EU for Romania go unspent because the country doesn't have the capacity to access it)

I am absolutely flabbergasted by the lack of vision that our politicians put forward. Romania could spearhead research into renewable energy; developing a green jobs sector would ensure not only that our contribution to solving the climate crisis is done properly, but would help in attracting foreign investments, would attract Romanian workers from abroad, could very well position Romania as an example of best-practices in the field, and would give a definite boost to the economy that can't be outsourced to China or India. There's no recipe yet - we could innovate in this field; as it is, the fact that the whole country is industrially backward is actually a benefit for us here.

Also, I heard none of the candidates come up with any plan to increase the spending of European funds in Romania; it seems we are incapable of coming up with proper projects to get the money..

Civil/Political Liberties

• The separation of Church and State - in Romania, the state finances all of the Romanian Orthodox Church's activities; I find this utterly unacceptable; one of the largest points of discussion around the European constitution was the mentioning of the Christian heritage in the constitution (again, something utterly unacceptable)


• Same-sex marriage


• Legalization of marijuana and of other light drugs


• assisted suicide


• Mass surveillance (including Internet snooping, CCTVs etc)


• Online rights


• Copyright

Now - I could go further in depth and support each one of these issues, but that's not my main concern right now. The problem is that the debate (well, there's no real debate, it's more like bickering and "let's raise pensions") does not include these issues; they are not even mentioned, and yet - they are of huge importance not just for the European society, but also for Romania, indifferent to wether they are perceived as such or not.

Later edit: I forgot to mention something that saddens me greatly. I emailed Cristian Preda, the rector of my former school, a set of questions and issues on which I asked his opinion. He never replied. If young, educated politicians display this kind of behaviour, I abhor to think of the other, former communists, politicians.

Furthermore, Corina sent me a link to a hotnews article where the top five candidates of the major parties to the European parliament where asked where they stand on gay marriage, legalization of light drugs and assisted suicide. Most of them refused to answer the questions; those that did answer them, followed the pattern "I'm a Christian..", "Romania's a Christian nation..".. so what? Did anybody ask you if you're a Christian? No, you were asked what your stand on gay marriage is, you moron! You're going to the European Parliament to work as a legislator, not as a christian! If you're taking the Christian stand on gay marriage, than you should also outlaw divorce, you should have sex with a single person all your life, and you should pray when you get sick, and not visit a doctor. Fucking morons!