#vot2014

Weekend clarifications - the Romanian presidential elections just took place. In a blatant and shameful disrespect for their citizens living abroad, the government and the ministry of foreign affairs made a mockery out of voting stations at embassies and consulates. Thousands of people waited in line in the cold for hours in order to exert their constitutional right to vote. My friends and I were lucky and after "only" three hours of waiting and we got to vote. Yet friends of ours from London, Paris, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt or Rome have waited up to ten hours in the cold and rain - some got to vote, some didn't. Some Romanian citizens were dispersed with tear gas after police was called because they would not go home without voting in Paris and Turin.

Now why did this happen, you wonder? Just because the PM was one of the candidates, representing an archaic, corrupt and tarred system that seems to be unshakable. Yet the people, mainly the young educated public, would not vote for him. The Romanians working and studying abroad would not vote for him. Because of that, they tried to shut them out. To block them from exerting their constitutional right, to humiliate them. Yet the people did not stand for that. Back in Romania people came out to the streets urging the governments to allow citizens from abroad to vote. No one spoke of the horrendous illegalities that occurred in the process at home - people just wanted their constitutional right.

This scenario, repeated in both rounds, led to an amazing wave of mobilisation and solidarity - people waited in line, even though there was no hope to vote, just to prove a point - they were not going to be humiliated, trampled upon by "the system". We, the young people of Romania, either home or abroad, would not stand for this. We, who created another image of the Romanian immigrant or the Romanian youngster abroad - the young student or the young professional - driven by ambition, hard work, intelligence and professionalism. An image that we could not stand to be tarred by allowing an abject product of the system, an arrogant imbecile, to become president - a guy who shamelessly plagiarised in his PhD thesis, who flat out lied for two years, who has proven his incompetence and, more than anything, who has called us, living abroad, traitors and "enemies of the country". A guy with no honour, common sense or decency. A guy who said that WE were the ones tainting the image of our country. Us, who work hard, study hard, live lives led by common sense and respect. Us who raised so many eyebrows when, after long conversations, people found out we're from Romania. We, who changed minds and perspectives. We, who made our friends eager to visit Romania. We, who heard our friends saying, after travelling to Romania - "You have such an amazing country, it's incredible!".

A weird feeling of fairness prevented me from going to vote for the Romanian elections two years ago and then again this year. For some unknown reason I thought "It's my right, but I don't live in Romania so I shouldn't be the one deciding." It doesn't happen often, but I have to admit I was wrong. Wrong for believing that whatever happens back in Romania does not affect me. Wrong for not wanting to think twice about the future of my friends, my family and possibly the impression of normality that my children will have when they will visit their mother's homeland.

I was wrong for being oblivious to the truth - I have a say, and I have to exert my right. Because of all the injustice and all the corruption that faults a system which has created a distorted image of the Romanian citizen in Europe - the garbage collector, the maid, the thief, the gypsy, the beggar. Because of the horrific stance where a cheat and a liar with no backbone or dignity could become the president. "My president." The person who will represent the same, distorted, image of the Romanian citizen in Europe - a liar, a cheat, a beggar and pretty much scum. 

We're not that and we refuse to be associated with that! My friends have waited for hours in line in Munich and London to vote just because this rascal and his mob decided to do their best to prevent the young people driven away from Romania by his gang to exert their right to vote. In my town - filled with young Romanians studying abroad - there was no possibility to vote. Yet in a town two hours away where I doubt the number of Romanian passes 100, there was a voting post. Thousands of Romanians living abroad - students, young professionals, workers or tourists - have not gotten the chance to vote. Why? Well that is pretty much easy - Victor Ponta, the current prime minister and the leader of the political party now in power, has a ridiculous image and almost no support outside Romania. Why? Because he's the produce of a tarred system, a communist hybrid with megalomaniac tendencies - a liar and a cheat who, faced with his revealed plagiarism in his PhD thesis did absolutely nothing but mock and laugh at the outraged public. No honour, no dignity, no values. 

I am tired of being associated with such scum. And the way his machinery acted in this first round of the presidential elections made me decide to go vote in the second round. From a passive bystander I decided to take action and say "Enough." Enough of people being slightly reluctant when they here where I come from. Enough humiliation at the borders because we're treated like second class citizens because of the attitudes of a political class born in shame and corruption. Enough of their talking and more of us acting. I might not be going back to my home country soon - but for the times I'll go back, for my friends, my family and my children - I'll care. This time it's on. This time we're taking a stand and this time we say "Enough!"