Let's start with the results of the Romanian presidential election runoffs, which, as widely expected (by me, euronews, Fr24) seem to be around 66% for Klaus Iohannis, the incumbent president (PNL), vs 33% for Viorica Dancila, former prime-minister (PSD), on a turnout of about less than 10 million or almost 50%. For diaspora, Iohannis got more than 80% of the vote in most diaspora sections, with the exception of Palestine (80.00%), Iraq (78.43%), Turkey, India, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel and Indonesia (57.81%! – hn-1vot). Quite possibly the Romanians in these countries saw her as another Odalisque. In older news, the Consul of Turkey prevented an American Embassy representative from delivering prepared remarks on religious freedom at a Turkish minority event in Constanta (hn-ruppiusufmurat).
Iohannis managed to avoid a debate with Dancila (hn-db8s) and was inexpressive (obs) and robotic all by himself. Never mind that he managed to get away without “debating” anyone, but the Romanian mass-media let him get away with calling his press conference, with individual invitations for a handful of journos, “debate”. Meanwhile, Dancila sent invitations for her own “debate” to news organizations desks, ostensibly allowing them to decide whom to send.
Dancila positioned herself as the more “human” candidate, even going as far as having as talking about a vote for her being a “vote with your heart”. That’s remarkable, given that many years ago, Iliescu (of “enlightened despot” fame), said that it’s time for us to “think with our head, not only with our heart”! This, BTW, is the same Iliescu who probably has accumulated more death wishes than any other Romanian leader still alive (v-pres), and voting at home.
A second “cognitive dissonance” in her message is how she dealt with Ana Birchall, guilty of upholding high ethical standards against party line. Whereas Dancila tried to distance herself from Dragnea’s “curse”, and even repeatedly complained about her male opponents forgetting that they are talking to a “lady”, she had no qualms about sacking a potential rival (also a “lady”), who only a few years back went through the ugliest, most sexist attack in modern Romanian politics. In so doing, Dancila performed worse than Geoana.
But Dancila’s shortcomings are, objectively speaking, more insignificant than the incumbent’s.
*(*This article is unfinished – it was scheduled to appear in the hope that it will be finished before, but since this message is here and until it is removed, the article is to be considered work in progress*)*.
Sources / More info: hn-ciolacu, hn-1vot, hn-ruppiusufmurat, hn-db8s, w-hsb, v-pres