The recent debate of Romanian politics in the European Parliament was the grotesque conclusion to this summer of our disco tent.

The star of the debate was undoubtedly Viviane Reding, who stuck to her guns in spite of an incredibly idiotic attack from USL and their socialist allies: she was even accused of wearing orange and thus implicitly a Basescu supporter (Catalin Sorin Ivan)! The Violet Flame (flacara violet) is alive and well in USL minds

Just hours before, the Lithuanian president who was visiting Romania and met Traian Basescu has asked the Romanian political class to “grow up” then had Ponta had to prove he cannot. Meanwhile, the Venice Commission is also in Romania to investigate the rule of law.

You can watch Manfred Weber / Ioan Mircea Pascu, Hannes Swoboda, Corina Cretu, Petru Luhan, VC, Monica Macovei and Norica Nicolai’s interventions on YouTube (even Badea).

In his commentary, ctp reiterates his belief that “Romania is not ignored”, much like a pitzi who thinks “he beat me out of jealousy, therefore he wuoves me.”

The only reasons the Romanian politics featured so prominently in Europe are:

1. It provides justification for keeping Romania out of Schengen. The real reason why Romania cannot be a part of Schengen has to do with “Romani-phobia” or the fear, hatred and contempt most Europeans feel toward the highly mobile Gypsy minority in Romania and also, to a lesser extent, the fear they feel that the “Balkanic” spirit will contaminate the purity of the Germanic Europe.
2. This cheap theater is a welcome Summer distraction, much like a South American soap opera.
3. It’s a stark reminder of how bad things can get if the Commission is not strengthened (“United States of Europe”).

Other than that, partisanship is alive and well in the European Parliament. The Progressive – Socialists attacked strongly Viviane Reding for her double standards, perhaps in compensation for shunning Ponta and cancelling the Bucharest meeting. The chair, Martinez, tried in vain to keep the debate civil by cutting microphones when the speakers would get too hot-headed or take more than 1 min (very often) and attempting in the beginning to get Manfred Weber to either ignore or be nice when responding to a rather benign question from Ioan Mircea Pascu. Weber had none of it and instead hit hard reminding of the Socialist near-betrayal of Ponta. The Greeks used this opportunity to talk about a forcibly imposed program of austerity, UDMR talked about returning church lands and their minority’s protests, and some German MEPs expressed their worry that Romanian style politics is contaminating the EU Parliament, instead of the opposite influence taking hold.

Why the title next, in Balkans: Euro-bananas.

For a USL-aligned view take a look at Octav Pelin’s article, while Clemy writes about USL bringing “satra” (the Gypsy commune) to the EU Parliament.

Sources / More info: eu-ro-deb8, hn, bananas, ctp