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Ortodoxinfo (Romanian) · Aug 16 View source View full article on hyper.nooz.ai

Mentalitate de pnlist coclit: Ciprian Ciucu îi numește „dușmanii democrației” pe românii care l-au huiduit pe Bolojan

🌐 Quote shown in the original Romanian — English translation below

… a afecta caracterul liber și corect al alegerilor. Curtea a invocat, între altele, afectarea egalității de șanse între candidați și distorsionarea procesului electoral.

Decizia a rămas însă una dintre cele mai controversate din istoria postdecembristă a României și continuă să fie criticată de o parte a societății și a clasei politice.

Unii dintre contestatarii ei au calificat-o inclusiv drept o „lovitură de stat constituțională”. Aceasta este o caracterizare politică, nu o constatare juridică.

Dar tocmai existența unei asemenea rupturi de încredere ar trebui să îi facă pe politicieni mult mai prudenți atunci când vorbesc despre „dușmanii democrației”.

CCR a anulat votul. Cetățenii care huiduie sunt însă cei etichetați

Ciucu îi numește astăzi „adversarii democrației” pe cei despre care afirmă că au organizat huiduielile …

🇬🇧 English translation

Coclit PNL mentality: Ciprian Ciucu calls Romanians who booed Bolojan the "enemies of democracy"

The illegitimate Mayor of the Capital and PNL first vice-president Ciprian Ciucu reacted after Ilie Bolojan was booed in Constanța during Navy Day, accusing the existence of a "staging" orchestrated by "adversaries of democracy."

Bolojan was met with boos during a speech delivered on August 15, and shouts such as "Bolojan, go home!" were heard from the crowd.

Ciucu did not treat the moment as what it normally is in a democracy — a public manifestation of dissatisfaction — but instead suggested that the reaction was organized by persons hostile to democracy.

"He knew he would be booed after the horrible campaign waged against him this year," the PNL leader conveyed. He added that Bolojan was aware of the "staging" of such manifestations, which he claimed is organized by "adversaries of democracy."

The label is serious.

In a democracy, a citizen who boos a politician does not, by that simple fact, become an adversary of the democratic system.

On the contrary, freedom of expression includes the right of people to loudly manifest their dissatisfaction with those who lead them.

Ciucu transforms booing into an attack on democracy

Ciprian Ciucu is attempting to present the episode in Constanța as a political action prepared against the Prime Minister.

He claims that Ilie Bolojan knew beforehand that he would be booed, following a campaign he described as "horrible," but that he went to Navy Day because "someone had to be there and represent the Romanian state."

However, the Prime Minister's presence at an official event is not being questioned.

The problem is the characterization of those who contested him as "adversaries of democracy."

A politician can consider boos to be unfair, organized, exaggerated, or politically motivated. He can present evidence that specific people were mobilized for the protest.

But simple public opposition to a Prime Minister is not an aggression against democracy.

Democracy does not mean mandatory applause for state representatives.

People are not obliged to applaud the Prime Minister

Ilie Bolojan occupies one of the most important political positions in Romania and has taken, along with his Government, decisions that have directly affected incomes, taxes, and public services.

It is natural for such policies to generate both support and opposition.

Citizens present at a public ceremony have no obligation to provide a Prime Minister with a comfort zone.

They can applaud him.

They can remain silent.

They can boo him.

As long as the manifestation remains peaceful and within the limits of the law, all represent forms of public expression.

When political leaders begin to divide the population into respectable supporters and "adversaries of democracy," simply because the latter are protesting, the meaning of democracy is inverted.

"Adversaries of democracy," the expression that replaces explanations

Ciucu did not publicly present evidence that all the people who booed Bolojan were part of a coordinated operation against democracy.

He spoke of a "staging." He spoke of "adversaries." He spoke of a campaign against the Prime Minister. But there is a huge difference between the existence of political mobilization and labeling demonstrators as adversaries of democracy.

Political parties organize demonstrations. Unions organize protests. Civic groups mobilize citizens. The opposition tries to exploit dissatisfaction with the Government.

All of these are part of the normal functioning of a democracy.

If there is evidence regarding an illegal action, it must be presented.

If there is none, it remains only a political label applied to citizens who dared to boo power.

Romania has already gone through the most controversial electoral decision in the last 35 years

The irony is all the greater since the expression "adversaries of democracy" is used in a country where the debate regarding the very functioning of democracy has not ended after the annulment of the presidential elections in December 2024.

On December 6, 2024, the Constitutional Court annulled the entire presidential electoral process and ordered it to be restarted from scratch, following the declassification of documents from security institutions.

The CCR justified the measure through irregularities that it considered serious enough to affect the free and fair character of the elections. The Court invoked, among other things, the affecting of equal opportunities between candidates and the distortion of the electoral process.

The decision remained one of the most controversial in Romania's post-communist history and continues to be criticized by a part of society and the political class.

Some of its challengers even characterized it as a "constitutional coup d'état." This is a political characterization, not a legal finding.

But it is precisely the existence of such a breach of trust that should make politicians much more prudent when speaking about "enemies of democracy."

The CCR annulled the vote. However, it is the citizens who boo who are being labeled

Ciucu today calls "adversaries of democracy" those whom he claims organized the boos against Bolojan.

The standard is at least curious.

In December 2024, millions of votes expressed in a presidential scrutiny were annulled by an unprecedented decision of the Constitutional Court.

Regardless of whether the CCR decision is considered correct or profoundly wrong, that was one of the most important moments for Romanian democracy.

The debate over it should be incomparably more serious than the indignation caused by a few hundred people booing a Prime Minister in Constanța.

Democracy is not threatened because a politician is whistled at.

Democracy becomes vulnerable when citizens come to believe that their vote no longer matters, that institutions are no longer impartial, and that any critic of power can be labeled as an extremist or an adversary of the democratic order.

Bolojan can represent the state and can be booed at the same time

Ciucu's argument that Bolojan went to Constanța because "someone had to represent the Romanian state" has nothing to do with the public's right to react.

The two things are not mutually exclusive.

Bolojan had the institutional right and obligation to participate.

The citizens had the right to express their dissatisfaction.

A Prime Minister does not become less a representative of the state because he is booed.

And those who boo him do not cease to be citizens of that same state.

This is exactly the difference between institutional representation and the cult of personality.

A politician cannot confiscate the term "democracy"

Democracy does not belong to the PNL.

It does not belong to Ciprian Ciucu.

It does not belong to Ilie Bolojan nor to their political adversaries.

It belongs to the citizens, including those who vote against power and those who take to the streets or boo at a public event.

Expressions such as "enemies of democracy" or "adversaries of democracy" must be used with maximum responsibility.

Otherwise, they become simple rhetorical weapons through which any form of opposition is delegitimized.

Today it is a group booing Bolojan.

Tomorrow it might be a protest against taxes.

Day after tomorrow, a demonstration against a law.

If every contestation automatically becomes an attack on democracy, then democracy ends up meaning only silence around those in power.

Booing is not a coup d'état

Ciprian Ciucu can be in solidarity with Ilie Bolojan.

He can consider that the Prime Minister is being unfairly attacked.

He can maintain that his reforms are necessary and that people will understand the results later.

But he cannot transform simple public dissatisfaction into proof of hostility toward democracy.

On August 15, in Constanța, a politician was booed.

That's it.

He was not prevented from speaking through violence, the state was not attacked, institutions were not occupied, and the constitutional order was not overturned.

There were people who no longer want Bolojan and said it loudly.

In a democracy, this is not the problem.

The problem begins when power considers that only applause is democratic.

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