Alarming news about the Military Democracy in Romania of which you hardly hear anything about on TV

Some recent reports point to the accelerated degradation of the rule of law in Romania and the transformation of the country from a weak democracy, threatened by chaos and political instability, as it has always been in recent years, into a military democracy, politically stable but with large democratic institutions in ruins. The military uniform is gradually taking over the role of civilians in the act of government. The ruling parties have become mere interfaces, which in the long run can lead to dramatic consequences.

The annihilation of criminal justice, the crippling of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA), and other prosecutors’ offices in investigating major corruption cases are now showing their effects. The State Department’s report on human rights in Romania 2021 speaks of „widespread corrupt practices”, „widespread corruption” or „government corruption with impunity”.

These kinds of assessments from the State Department are rather reminiscent of the dark times for Romanian democracy of the Nastase or Dragnea eras, characterized by „endemic corruption”, authoritarian style, and obsession with media control.

Although the former PSD leader was convicted of corruption, even Liviu Dragnea’s party has come to wonder that, lo and behold, it can be even worse than in his time: „Never in recent years has there been such a devastating Country Report on law-breaking and mischief against citizens. During Dragnea’s government, no such abuses and transgressions were found,” reads a hilarious press release from Dragnea’s new party the Alliance for the Fatherland.

The State Department report deals extensively with the issue of freedom of the press in Romania. The press, another fundamental institution of the rule of law, was characterized last year, according to the report, by excessive politicization, corrupt funding mechanisms, limited freedom of expression due to restricted access to information of public interest, harassment, intimidation, attacks on journalists.

Since last year, the press has gone from bad to worse. What the State Department report didn’t record is the near-total alignment of the major broadcasters with the government agenda and the buying of the press with government money during the pandemic or with money from political parties. Radio Free Europe reports in a recent article that the parties have paid over 300 million lei of public money for propaganda and promotion in the press in the last three years. In the last two months alone, the PNL and PSD have spent almost €3 million. The PSD is keeping secret information about the beneficiaries of public money.

„The phenomenon of contracts between parties and the media has taken on a particular dimension in recent years, analysts note. As parliament has approved substantial increases in the subsidies received by parliamentary parties, the amounts that have gone from the accounts of political parties to the media have increased exponentially,” notes journalist Cristian Andrei of Europa Liberă.

The big newsrooms have therefore been bought with cash to align their editorial agenda with government policy. The big parties have bought their silence. The TV stations have become the watchdogs of power, the wall newspapers, the watchdogs of the PNL and PSD, with whom the leaders of these parties collaborate in a mutually beneficial alliance.

The other day I saw a campaign unleashed by A3 against the Speculators, blamed for the rise in food prices as if markets and shops in Romania were still operating with state-fixed prices as before 1989. The coverage was a little reminiscent of the famous Reflector show during communism, which railed against petty swindling, but never dared to criticize the power.

That’s pretty much where we’ve returned to today after 30 years. The same newsrooms that used to rail against the „parallel state” a few years ago have today become part of Romania’s militarized system of power, disciplined little soldiers under the command of the generals who run Romania.

Field journalists face increasing censorship and limitations in asking questions, taboo subjects, and revelations put on the public agenda by the few independent websites, and investigative journalists are simply ignored. Most relevant is the case of Șercan, the revelations about PM Ciucă’s plagiarism, and the accusation that the investigative journalist was subsequently the target of a compromise campaign. Has anyone seen the case debated intensely on TV?

There’s one more important piece of news you may have missed. Ten European and international organizations, including Reporters Without Borders, have reacted to the harassment of Emilia Șercan, expressing serious concerns about the case and its implications for the freedom of the press in Romania. The ten organizations sent an open letter to the Romanian authorities and Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă on Thursday calling for prompt and independent investigations. Again, this is typical of countries with major democratic deficits.

The Șercan case, along with the attempts to intimidate the wife of G4Media.ro editor-in-chief Cristian Pantazi, have come to be debated more in the foreign press than at home. Politico, a highly influential publication in Brussels, wrote extensively about the two cases, with the important point that these attacks on the freedom of the press „raise concerns about the rule of law in this country”.

Justice and the press are fundamental institutions in a democracy. When they are silenced, the democratic system becomes seriously unbalanced. Abuses and misconduct of power risk not only going unpunished but not even being reported to the public.

Journalist Sabina Fati, for her part, drew attention to Romania’s democratic deficits in a commentary published on the Deutsche Welle website: „If the judiciary and the press are not independent, Romania is likely to follow Hungary’s path, but without its economic strategies. If the judiciary and the press are not independent, the elections will also be distorted. Without an independent Justice and Press, Romania could choose the wrong path again. Without an independent  judiciary and press, General Ciucă will retain his plagiarized PhD he earned between two tours of duty in the Balkans and Afghanistan, the PSD will take over the Justice System, and the 2024 elections will be pre-determined by those in power, as if Romania were a third world country.”

It would be an illusion to believe that the rapid deterioration of the rule of law in Romania is not visible in Brussels. According to G4Media.ro, not only is it visible, but the European Commission is increasingly concerned and irritated by Bucharest’s missteps. The incompetence of the dialogue partners in the government is starting to bother people abroad. Let’s not forget, however, that the EU has at its fingertips a powerful new mechanism that makes European funds conditional on the rule of law. The mechanism has just been activated in the case of Hungary. It remains to be seen how much patience Brussels will have with the authorities in Bucharest.

In Romania, it is not only the press and justice that suffer, but also the quality of governance. Led by straw men, the big parties have almost no say in the running of the country. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă seems to be merely executing decisions taken elsewhere.

For example, the names of the next judges at the Constitutional Court, where three terms are due to expire in June, are communicated to the PNL and PSD leaders, who take note of them. This is how Marcel Ciolacu came to learn that his party will support for nomination at the high court the current first deputy of the General Prosecutor’s Office, Bogdan Licu, a man of the system, to the astonishment of the PSD members.

In General Ciucă’s militarized democracy, another unnoticed news passed unnoticed, not at all debated in the public space.

Economedia.ro revealed that the Government adopted on Thursday an emergency ordinance regulating foreign investments in Romania from non-EU countries (Russia, China, USA, UK, etc.). The ordinance provides for a vetting process for investments in sensitive sectors in excess of €2 million, and the intelligence services SRI and the Foreign Intelligence Service SIE have a say in the procedure. Why? For „Protecting essential interests of public security and public order”.

The SRI and SIE have always had a say in these matters, foreign investors could not set foot in Romania immediately after 1990 without their informal consent, without the co-optation of generals in big business. The „vital infrastructure of the state”, which over time has come to encompass almost all profitable sectors (IT, health, energy, media), has become a battleground for confrontation between different intelligence services or groups inside the intelligence services.

Now their influence on the government seems so strong that they have simply legalised their way of operation: big business from outside the EU does not set foot in Romania without their permission.

Is this militarization of the state justified by the argument that we have a war at the border and that the time has come for the country to be run by „serious people”, as General Ciucă’s slogan as sole candidate for PNL leadership put it? Is it more effective and desirable to have a military government, hierarchically organized political parties like barracks, order and discipline instead of the hullabaloo, chaos and endless crises offered by Romanian parties when they are left to run the country on their own?

Which do you prefer? A crooked, imperfect but living democracy or a military democracy, with the press and the judiciary marching in step with the power in total silence?

Translated from Romanian by Ovidiu H.