The change in year-end

Romanian society underwent in November 2015 through an unprecedented political

crisis in recent years, an identity crisis first, broke out immediately after the days of national
mourning announced by the fourth Ponta Cabinet, when a total of several thousand people
took to the streets in Bucharests Universitate Square (where the crowds first gathered 26
years ago to oust the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu), to protest against corruption,
demanded freedom, equity because they are EU citizen (with political rights, rights of free
movement, social security rights), solidarity, a clear ideology (but political ideologies
perform four functions: explanation, evaluation, orientation and political program because
they are trying to link thought, ideas and beliefs, to action. Every ideology provides a vision
of the social and political world not only as it is, but as it should be, in hopes of inspiring
people to act either to change or to preserve their way of life. 1 and this cannot be claimed in
the street), and to shout against the government, especially the Minister of Internal Affairs,
Oprea, Mayor of District 4, Popescu Piedone, and Prime Minister Ponta, as a result of the
tragedy of the Colectiv club, a catastrophic event where indifference shown by some persons
regarding the safety regulations, and corruption present in public administration in Romania
resulted in the death of over 60 people.
Soon after, Prime Minister Ponta has resigned and the entire government fell. For
many political analysts was something surprising that the Romanian Prime Minister resigned
after refusing earnestly to do that a few months ago, when he was indicted by prosecutors
DNA for 17 offenses of forgery of documents under private signature 2, thus becoming the first
premier in the history of Romania who is indicted for corruption during his tenure. Victor
Ponta has resigned as head of government saying I will not fight with people who have
demanded the resignation of the streets, forgetting perhaps that he was voted deputy of
20.000 people in the college's elections (winning about 61% of total valid votes) and as copresident of the alliance USL (political alliance ended in 2014) won the parliamentary
1 Terence BALL, Richard DAGGER, Daniel I. O'NEIL, Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal, Pearson
Education, New Jersey, 2013, p. 6.

2 Digi24,
http://www.digi24.ro/Stiri/Digi24/Actualitate/Justitie/Victor+Ponta+a+fost+trimis+in+judecata,
04.01.2016
1

elections of 2012 over 4.5 million votes of Romanians (60% of the valid votes) and he was
also voted by 5.264.383 people in the Romanian presidential election (November 16, 2014).
I was in University Square on the evening of November 4, because I had a deep
curiosity about the events of that evening. I wanted to watch the protests, trying to be just a
silent witness of the events because I did not identify with some of the claims of University
Square. Of course, at that time there were over 10 thousand people in University Square,
mostly younger, but I have seen parents or grandparents with their children. There was not an
uproar, you could socialize with people in the vicinity, but in the center core was a group of
young people, up to a hundred, shouting various slogans: against corruption (do not want
corruption, make a revolution, the corruption kills), changing political class, the
government's resignation (although in the morning of November 4, Prime Minister Ponta has
resigned from the premiership, and automatically the government fell, even if an interim
Prime Minister has been appointed by the President Iohannis in posture of Minister of
Education, Sorin Cimpeanu) we want elections, we want justice for the victims of the club
Colectiv, we want hospitals, not cathedrals (as if the two entities are conditioned each
other) to slogans antidemocratic like "all parties, same mess ". However, a democracy without
parties is not possible, and according to the definition of Giovanni Sartori "A party is any
political group identified by an official label that presents at elections, and is capable of
placing through elections (free or non-free), candidates for public office". 3 It is a mistake to
deny all parties because they are part of the political pluralism that defines a democracy.
I must say from the outset that I do not agree the idea that all parties represent the
same mess, but I do not agree with the statements of some local politicians or journalists
under which a technocrat government lacks legitimacy. True, a technocrat government 4 is not
elected by the people, it is not composed of members of the party which have passed
democratic elections, yet we must not forget that a technocrat government is formed by a
Prime Minister appointed, as Constitution5 stipulates, by the head of state, President of
Romania, directly elected freely and democratically by the people and then it has to be
3 Giovanni SARTORI, Parties and Party Systems: A Framework of Analysis, Cambridge University Press, New
York, 1976, p. 56.

4 A technocratic government is one in which the ministers are not career politicians; in fact, in some cases they
may not even be members of political parties at all. They are instead supposed to be experts in the fields of
their respective ministries.

approved by the Parliament by a simple majority, and the majority elected democratically by
the people, even if in Romania is a version of a mixed electoral system combines a single
round of voting in single-member constituencies with a two-round system of seat allocation
for parties that surpass an electoral threshold of 5%. Only those candidates who win over 50%
of the votes in single-member constituencies are automatically elected. The remaining seats
are distributed among the political parties first at the county level (using the Hare quota) and
then at the national level (according to the dHondt method 6), provided they pass the 5%
threshold. That being said, I think this government has earned legitimacy because it is made
according to the Constitution of Romania.
Indeed, like many commentators said, the protest began spontaneously in a few days,
after the tragic event from club Colectiv, and is seems to be a social movement born from the
desire of citizens to express frustration and incompetence of the local authorities who have
implemented the law. It is a civic movement, who has not been arranged by a political party
and was not orchestrated by anyone. Political theorists have argued since the time of Aristotle
that extreme inequalities contribute to the establishment of hegemonic regimes, and for a
society to thrive the egalitarianism must prevail, a group of middle-class citizens, avoiding the
so differences too high social position, income and wealth. Maybe this middle-class citizens
came out to protest the fact that the middle class does not feel represented in Parliament, and
therefore they displayed slogans against the political class. But it must be stressed that in
Romania there is no such thing as a political class, because in Romania does not exist a
political elite, and the MPs are elected by the people themselves.
In November 2015, in Romania has been occurred an important political change. After
a period of cohabitation between the Prime Minister and the President, the President Iohannis
took over the reins of power. He won the elections on November 16, 2014, and on December
21, 2014 he took office. But the President truly came into power when Victor Ponta has
submitted the resignation. From now, Iohannis can follow the program he said will follow in
the electoral campaign of the 2014 presidential election. His relationship with the former

5 Art. 85, Constitution of Romania available online at http://cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?

id=371&idl=2&par1=3
6 is a highest averages method for allocating seats in proportional representation.

Prime Minister it evolved from velvet cohabitation in the first 6 months, to a conflicting 7
cohabitation until the resignation of Prime Minister.
The President announced that he did not want to be a spectator, but because he did not
have a majority in Parliament he remains waiting. After the tragedy at the collective, the
President has imposed his own government, a government of technocrats, but also he risked
much with this government due the fact that in 2016 will be legislative elections and local
authorities and if the newly Presidential government will not produce spectacular results, he
will lose trust voters. In Romania a strange thing happened after the government's resignation.
Immediately after President Iohannis consulted with political parties 8, and before nominates
Prime Minister Ciolos, the presidential administration held an official meeting between the
President and representatives of civil society, within demonstrators from University Square,
and NGOs that are the most representative in Romania. After the consultation at the Cotroceni
Palace with civil society, many politicians and commentators criticized the meeting between
President and representatives of civil society because the Constitution stipulate that The
President of Romania shall designate a candidate to the office of Prime Minister, as a result of
his consultation with the party which has obtained absolute majority in Parliament, or -unless
such majority exists - with the parties represented in Parliament.9
Contrary to Ponta Cabinet, who had some problems related to the number of ministers
indicted by DNA and problems in the justice of Prime Minister Ponta which has been
prosecuted, Ciolos and his government have an immaculate background, offering a capital of
trust of the Romanians, but it remains to be seen whether it will remain reliable in the coming
months, especially that Ciolos Cabinet has a mandate limited to one year. However, Ciolos
Cabinet was invested after club Colectiv tragedy because the parliamentary parties had not the
courage to nominate a Prime Minister, the parties went on the defensive and left the President
Iohannis to impose his Prime Minister. An important thing that I should say is that Ciolos did
7 http://www.romania-insider.com/president-klaus-iohannis-asks-prime-minister-to-resign/150350,
22.12.2015
8 http://revista22.ro/7024794/se-contureaza-un-guvern-tehnocrat-iohannis-va-avea-un-cuvant-greu-de-spus-informarea-sa.html, 07.01.2016

9 Art. 103, Constitution of Romania available online at http://cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?

id=371&idl=2&par1=3
4

not appeared from nowhere, because with 2 weeks before the tragedy from club Colectiv, at
many TV station from Romania, I personal heard that Dacian Ciolos will be the next Prime
Minister of Romania.
Many observers emphasized the idea that this government it is not an technocratic
government because it had in his structure a Prime Minister who is a former minister of
Agriculture and Rural Development (August 2007 December 2008) in the Second Clin
Popescu-Triceanu Cabinet and since February 2010 until in November 2014, he was the
European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development appointed by President
Basescu. Another important member of this newly government, a former member of the
Social Democratic Party for eight years, Vasile Dancu, professor of sociology, which is a
former member of the Senate in the legislative 2004-2008 from Cluj County, a member in
Socialist Group in the European Parliament in 2007, and the Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration in Ciolos Cabinet.
Another criticism of this technocratic government is that this government has no
representation, cannot be controlled and who is in power and who is in opposition, but I think
the Parliament can control the government decisions, because the MPs can propose a vote of
no confidence if the government no longer represents them.
To conclude, I think the change of the government should not occurred, because the
event from Colectiv was a tragic accident, but this tragedy could not be stopped by the Prime
Minister, ministers, MPs, President or any institution, and Ciolos Cabinet must fulfill the
promises regarding the integrity that will be established in Romania in this period, but we
must not forget that Ponta government was based from the start on a huge wave of sympathy,
and then the public opinion was turned against him. Yet our society has evolved, laws and
regulations in the field of security are strictly now, especially since November 17 when was
promulgated by the legitimate President Iohannis a law which prohibits conduct of activities
in commercial premises such as shops, theaters and tourist structures, clubs, buildings with
high seismic risk, until they will be consolidated. According to Max Weber, the legitimacy
derived from the peoples faith in legitimacy. The power is legitimate when people believe
that power is this: The legitimacy is tantamount to belief in the legitimacy and legitimate
power is the power that is seen as legitimate.10 Legitimacy is convinced that once the order is
10 Max WEBER, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, University of California Press,
Los Angeles, 1978, p. 215

based, the authority appears as a legitimate exercise of domination in a group of domination.

Legitimate political power is able to deliver on policy choices decisions and laws in concrete
measures to translate into practice. This situation is mirrored power of the concept of
authority. In this respect, in our society it is trying to implement a legal authority because
legal authority rests on the acceptance of the validity of the following mutually
interdependent ideas. That any given legal norm may be established by agreement or by
imposition, on grounds of expediency or value-rationality or both, with a claim to obedience
at least on the part of the members of the organization have been declared to be relevant. That
every body of law consists essentially in a consistent system of abstract rules which have
normally been intentionally established11
Bibliography:

Primary sources:

Constitution of Romania available online at http://cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?id=371

Legea nr.35/2008 pentru alegerea Camerei Deputailor i a Senatului
Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union available
online at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:12012E/TXT

Secondary sources:

BALL Terence, DAGGER Richard, O'NEIL Daniel I., Political Ideologies and the
Democratic Ideal, Pearson Education, New Jersey, 2013.
SARTORI, Giovanni, Parties and Party Systems: A Framework of Analysis, Cambridge University
Press, New York, 1976.

WEBER, Max, Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, University of

California Press, Los Angeles, 1978

Web sources:

http://aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011111675931523936.html, 22.12.2015

11 Ibidem, p.217
6

http://digi24.ro/Stiri/Digi24/Actualitate/Justitie/Victor+Ponta+a+fost+trimis+in+judecata,
04.01.2016
Member of the European Parliament, available online at
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/mepatt/leg6/33998.pdf, 03.01.2016
http://politico.eu/article/romanian-pm-dacian-ciolos-gives-caretaker-cabinet-a-brussels-flavor,
21.12.2015
Presidential statement, available online at http://presidency.ro/ro/media/comunicate-depresa/consultarea-presedintelui-romaniei-domnul-klaus-iohannis-cu-reprezentanti-aisocietatii-civile, 05.01.2016
http://revista22.ro/7024794/se-contureaza-un-guvern-tehnocrat-iohannis-va-avea-un-cuvantgreu-de-spus-in-formarea-sa.html, 02.01.2016
http://theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/04/romanian-government-resigns-nightclub-firevictor-ponta, 29.12.2015
Vote

participation,

available

online

at

http://bec2014.ro/participarea-la-vot-turul-ii,

04.01.2016
Vote participation, available online at http://becparlamentare2012.ro/index.html, 04.01.2016