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There is open season on Viorica Dancila, the losing presidential candidate from PSD and former prime-minister of Romania. Today, Monday, she has even renounced the leadership of Socialist PSD, until not long ago the main Romanian party. For a contrarian such as myself, this is the perfect moment to announce my undying love for this misunderstood and not very presentable "prezidentiable".

Although I already said I’m not voting, due to atrocious bureaucratic hurdles at a time when it was supposed to be as easy to vote as possible in the most expensive election so far, I’m having second thoughts. Voting is an opportunity to give some unknown hopeful a chance, so I will have a quick look at the lesser known candidates who are worthy of a second look (apart from frontrunners).

Our favorite former SF author, CTP, is back with another seemingly antiziganist or racist controversy, again on former PM and current PSD candidate for president, Dancila. He made fun of her family name etymology (likely Romani or Gypsy) and an anti-discrimination group / person entered the fray.

I noticed recently how the mere mention of Birchall, in a positive manner, by President Iohannis, has caused backlash in PSD and there is even talk of excluding her from that rapidly disintegrating party. One could say that he likes her, but is he just mouthing it? To me, this is symbolic of PNL encroaching in PSD’s home turf and, in some instances, replacing it.

I probably won’t be voting this year. I’m telling you about my failed attempt to register for “vote by correspondence” or “votul prin corespondenta” as well as my passport application.

Recently, a new candidate for Romanian presidency, Alexandru Cumpanasu, has finally undergone more media scrutiny after having had to make some candidacy-related disclosures. We look into some of the claims made by this individual (whom we strongly dislike) and track down the most likely “university” he is attending, linked below in sources.

The very recent new USR scandal featuring Andrei Caramitru and the Vice Romania “journalist” Sidonia Bogdan is both disturbing and funny. I don’t consider myself “journalist” but as a blogger I’ve asked candidates questions, with mixed results, and as a political candidate I often had to deal with incredibly idiotic interactions on Facebook, so I sort of see where Caramitru the Young is coming from as well. Let me explain.

Those of us who haven’t forgotten the recent elections (and this includes some of those happy with the results as well as those who predicted a PSD win, were proven wrong and keep looking for a reason to save their reputation) are still somewhat surprised. I know I am. So while looking for a well laid out contrarian opinion, I discovered the blog PoliTichii, obstinately hanging on to a pro-PSD viewpoint after having [wrongly] forecasted a PSD win.

In the past few days, most of the Romanians I know received two important gifts: PSD didn’t win the elections and Dragnea, its [widely considered] corrupt boss, was sentenced to jail and went there shortly thereafter. Though I’m not a Dragnea/PSD fan, I find the celebrations a bit empty. What bugs me is that only one candidate answered my questions re: #EP2019, and I fear that the vast majority of voters never tried to clarify the programme of the candidates they voted for, nor have they tried to interact with them. Let's try to find reasons.

Cu exceptia introducerii, acest articol este in limba romana. As promised, I publish the answers received to the questions posed over the past few days with the deadline set on May 15. We did not specify a time for the deadline and as we write this article, it is possible that someone else may be sending us a reply. If that’s the case, comment on this article to let us know.

As previously announced, I am presenting here the questions to ask euro candidates. I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to pose the questions, which is why I am posting them here, in the hope that someone else might help asking them and returning the answers.

There are two issues I have not written about, though they’ve been on my mind and are quite troubling, from a consistency point of view: Sevil Shhaideh Saga and Kovesi’s plagiarism. The second can wait, but the first is quite important.

Long time ago some band came up with a song that was supposed to dissipate fears and bring back the magic of the enchanted evening: don’t fear the reaper. It seems that my friends are now afraid that PSD will bring the amnesty law.

I’m not a nationalist and though I wish my Romanian friends “La Multi Ani” for our national holiday, a small part of me is uneasy, because nationalism means association with people who share your ethnic background, some good, some bad, but in our case (and, of course, excepting those I know personally), mostly bad.

When it comes to presidents, I prefer them quiet and subdued, but when I look back, I kept voting for the loud ones. I’m much like a woman who claims she’s looking for good guys but constantly ends up with bad boys. I’m not the only one, judging by the recent results of US elections. So I’m hurrying to finish this article, in a McDonald’s with non-working Wi-Fi, fueled by their free coffee promotion with only 30 minutes left to go. 

Despite having better things to do and write about, a recent article published by Deutsche Welle annoyed me enough to get me to write about the non-debate happening in USA and discuss abortion.

A recent Op-Ed in New York Times seems to have caused a fair amount of consternation in both Romania as well as among my diaspora friends. Ion could equally be Ion Iliescu, recently green-lighted to be re-investigated in the “Mineriada” file, Adrian Nastase, the suicidal former premier and failed presidential candidate who had become the first test case of prosecutorial overreach in the case of an elite aparatchik, or even Patrick Basham, not afraid to confront the warm, fuzzy racism/scepticism/antiziganism-fuelled consensus that Romania is “doing something”.

I have an almost Pavlovian reflex when it comes to inconsistent or illogical patterns. I've built-in expectation for things to turn out as they should, and when they don't, as it is often the case in life, alarm bells sound.

As shown in results, in the runoff, Romanians will get to choose between Iohannis and Ponta. I wrote extensively about Ponta (dottore, virgin suicides, beligan-ponta, greatest plagiarizer, plai cu plagiat, roi rouge, geoana, partisanship, nastase), so before I tell you why I'm voting Ponta, I'll take a look at who is Iohannis.

In my previous election adventures, I have relied heavily on the 'testvote' application and even shared and commented my results with you, my readers. I was planning to do the same this time, then I noticed something peculiar: all the candidates have virtually the same position! Upon further investigating, it appeared that either the application has been updated in the meantime or there was an error due to poor Internet connectivity and bad coding.