Coalitions and parties in Romania have submitted their official lists for the European Parliament elections. Some of the names on them annoy us or even arouse our contempt, but are we right to feel this way? We can provide an answer by comparing our perception with the figures regarding the activity of candidates who have had at least one term. And beyond that, why do the lists look the way they do?
The PNL-PSD list showcases politicians who have stood out for absenteeism and anti-performance
Let's start with the joint PNL-PSD list, because it belongs to the most influential political force running. If we exclude – full of rage or, on the contrary, of admiration - Gabriela Firea, as she has not had any previous mandate as an MEP and does not fit our analysis grid, we could still be annoyed by the presence on this list of the likes of Claudiu Manda or Maria Grapini (places 5 and 10). How do they fit in the statistics of the current legislature of the European Parliament?
If you thought they’re invisible, you'd be wrong. On the contrary, they are quite visible. But the statistics in which they are seen are The MEP UnAwards, published by Politico - a kind of "Anti-awards for MEPs".
Claudiu Manda confirms there his leading position on the PNL-PSD list, with the 2nd place in the ranking of absentees (MIA - Missing in Action) from the European Parliament: 43.6% absences from parliament’s proceedings. And we must say that the Romanian MEP has a handicap in the competition, because the winner in absentia, the Greek neo-Nazi Ioannis Lagos (61.9%), was arrested in 2021, so he could not participate for the next three years.
In the same kind of comparison, there is a Romanian MEP with a symmetrical situation to Manda's, only the other way around, ranking 2nd on the PNL-PSD list and 5th on the list of absentees. It’s the Liberal Rareș Bogdan, whom I didn't mention initially, because there are still some that he doesn’t annoy. And he is always on TV anyway, so he couldn’t be in two places at the same time.
Or could he? Maria Grapini, so visible in Romania, managed to win two 6th places at the Politico UnAwards: in the “Chatterbox" and "Wingman" categories. More specifically: official interventions (54,484 words spoken) and signatory of others' amendments (no less than 10,344). How much is 50-something thousand words? For lack of a better term of comparison, we could say it’s about as long as "Hamlet" (30.5 thousand words) and "King Lear" (26-something thousand) combined.
Why did Politico include these categories as UnAwards? It may seem that a politician who talks a lot and signs a lot of amendments is an active one. Physically speaking, they are, but what are the consequences of their words and signatures? In any of the world’s parliament, there are loquacious MPs who keep speaking no matter the occasion just to be seen and heard, in the hope that they will be noticed by the press. As for co-signing amendments, it is the shabbiest and most idle type of bargaining chip, a service you can do without any political ideas of your own, hoping that it will benefit you if you’d ever have any such ideas. In the "Wingman" category we also find Ramona Strugariu, in 5th place, just above Grapini. A REPER politician with a fairly good image in Romania and without much visibility in Brussels, she has co-signed 10,427 amendments.
Politico's "unAwards" also include one that went to a Romanian in the "Lone Wolf" category, of politicians who submitted amendments by themselves, not supported by the group or their national MEPs. The Liberal Daniel Buda (8th place on the PNL-PSD list) appears in second place, with over 4,700 such amendments. In principle, initiatives of this type have no chance of becoming reality without political support. Sometimes it's about something else, but that's what the bare figures say.
Those that are actually working in Brussels don't have time to show up on TV in Bucharest
Irony aside, comparing the places on the electoral lists of the major parties with the counter-performances in the European Parliament is legitimate. And if we wonder what (positive) performances the Romanian MEPs have had, we come back to the issue of 2024’s electoral lists. Politico only publishes a list of 21 "notable" future MEPs (with chances to be part of the next European legislature), of which no Romanian is a member. In terms of performance and political "mojo", we can refer to EUMatrix, a site that lists the 100 most influential MEPs. The Romanians with mandates in the 2019-2024 term included in the list are:
Dragoș Tudorache (REPER/Renew – 10)
Marian Jean Marinescu (PNL/PPE – 31)
Cristian Bușoi (PNL/PPE – 34)
Siegfried Mureșan (PNL/PPE – 37)
Victor Negrescu (PSD/S&D – 53)
Dragoș Pîslaru (REPER/Renew – 63)
Dacian Cioloș (REPER/Renew – 67)
Corina Crețu (PRO România/S&D – 80)
Maria Grapini (PSD/S&D – 90)
Rovana Plumb (PSD/S&D – 94).
After giving Maria Grapini the due credit - the fact that she manages to be present at the same time not only in three places, Bucharest, Brussels and Strasbourg, but also in three charts, two negative and one positive - we can end the discussion about PNL- PSD with Siegfried Mureșan (11 on the electoral list, 4/37 in the influence ranking) and Victor Negrescu (7 and 5/53, respectively).
Rovana Plumb, Cristian Bușoi and Marian Jean Marinescu didn’t “make it” to the PNL-PSD eligible list. According to information from Brussels, Marian Jean Marinescu, a constant presence in various positive charts from Brussels, is on the verge of retirement. And all this leads us to another electoral list, that of REPER. A precise comparison between the positions on this list held by Dragoș Tudorache, Dragoș Pîslaru and Dacian Cioloș and those in the European influence charts is useless, because REPER is rated with 1.8% - 3% in various electoral polls in Romania, so it has little chance of going beyond the electoral threshold.
This happens even though, beyond the figures presented by one website or another, REPER has a good reputation in the European Parliament, with key positions and reports in the Brussels legislature. Regardless of what one might say about what this party has done in Romania, it is clear that for the country's electorate the achievements in Brussels have absolutely no importance. In a somewhat similar situation, although in a completely different area of the political spectrum and with other sympathizers, is Corina Crețu, a former European commissioner who remains at the top in terms of parliamentary influence, who has expressed her willingness to run, but has not been included in any eligible list. Similarly, Nicu Ștefănuță, a former USR MEP who has been heard about in Brussels, is running as an independent, after resigning from the USR in 2023. Probably without any chance of winning.
Visible sometimes (or not) on social media through their own efforts, all these politicians have as a common denominator the fact that they’ve been almost invisible in the "classic" media - especially on TV screens. Of course, if you want to vote, negotiate and deal seriously with important reports in Brussels, you don't even have time for vacations in Bucharest, let alone for a sustained presence in the media.
But media matters. Does television win elections in Romania? No. But it does, however, ensure eligible places on the lists.
The Romanian MEP: "everything is the other way around in Brussels: everything is arranged so you can work"
In one of my first visits to the headquarters of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, about 17 years ago, a Romanian MEP from the Parliament in Bucharest told me a story that deserves to be quoted in full: "Look, here everything is the other way around than in Bucharest. We don't have a service car, you saw that I asked for a «reçu» [receipt] from the taxi driver when I came from the airport. Instead we have the Internet buzzing. In Romania, you have to come with the Zapp [back then you would connect your laptop via a phone line], to have internet access. You see, we're in my office, and it has an antechamber, while in Bucharest you're lucky if you get a corner of the table in the group room to put your laptop and Zapp. Everything is arranged here so that you can work, effectively. The only comfort is the shower in the office, which you need because you often don't have time to get to the hotel between two big rounds of meetings. In fact, it is very important for a MEP to have access to a fast-dry cleaner."
It is obvious that, in Brussels, the institutions are designed in such a way as to show those who have arrived there that they have not won a prize or a four-year holiday, but should prepare for an intense period of work. We have already seen the mixed way in which this message was understood by the Romanian parties that dominated the previous electoral cycle. But how does this apply when looking at the other political forces with highs chances of winning in June 2024? The United Right's list includes the current MEPs Eugen Tomac and Vlad Botoș, whom I haven't found much in the Brussels rankings or press. There is no big news from the UDMR either, with Iuliu Winkler and Loránt Wincze in the first places, although the ethnic Hungarians sent by Romania to Brussels at least have a good reputation behind the scenes.
But all politicians who have received bad grades from one side or another have at least the merit of having exposed themselves previously, of having existed politically before statistics. But there are also other types of characters on the lists.
Head of the AUR list is the current MEP Cristian Terheș (we don't have enough space to list all the parties he’s been a member of), who has stood out in Brussels once, at the Schumann roundabout, in front of the European Commission, in an anti-vaxxer rally during the pandemic. And also in a notification issued by colleagues in the European Parliament who denounced hate speech. On the AUR list Terheș is joined by characters with high visibility, public appearances very much to Putin's liking and a non-existent political portfolio, such as Gheorghe Piperea or Mihail Neamțu. SOS, Șoșoacă's party, raises the bet with its alma mater and the famous Luiz Lazarus topping the list.
With or without the figures mentioned above, it is clear that the Romanian parties, not just the extremist ones, rely on loud characters, with a considerable dose of ridiculousness and radioactive potential and all this against the background of the war in Ukraine, the geopolitical and economic rivalry with China and the uncertainty of the transatlantic relationship. Even the appearance of Dan Barna and Vlad Voiculescu on top of the United Right's list is symptomatic, although they are not characters of the caliber of Cristian Terheș. They are USR’s most visible people, the latter having clear audiovisual skills, as evidenced by his presence in a documentary that was very much intent on praising a minister.
A post-atomic landscape of "shampoo candidates" and nervous voters
And then, are the Romanian parties, from one end of the spectrum to the other, a kind of toxic protoplasm, which is chocking Romanian society, forcing the electorate to vote for all kinds of bizarre characters, at least alien to the European spirit and values, if not right suspicious? Not only common sense, but also the REPER example shows us that no. The electorate does not vote according to the Brussels charts. However, it is a faint consolation that we are not the only ones who do this. Nigel Farage, who made a decisive contribution to BREXIT, is the clearest proof. Many times, it's about characters who get into office not under the umbrella, but in spite of the big parties, the ones that "annoy us". Curiously, a very clear explanation for the whole story comes from a politician, Romanian nevertheless, who published it on his own on LinkedIn page. Here is what Eduard Hellvig says:
"Max Weber died a century ago, and so has in the meantime his idea of professional and gifted politicians. The route to the rarefied air of politics has the shortcut of notoriety figures; various characters that have a certain way with the electorate are measured, with the science of politics coming along the way, as a sort of workplace specialization. [...] The competence of the shampoo-candidate is precisely their success, whatever it may be - in sports, in business, in music, in fashion, on the stage of the theater or on the stage of life. The star system has never been more logical, Weber never more outdated. People are tired of "these guys", and a bling-bling from outside the circle can't be worse than them. It's all about not being one of "these guys". Current politics has ended up devouring its essence and inventing new heads through which to spit flames of welfare.”
Simply put, we live in a post-atomic political landscape, and parties are obliged, or at least inclined, to list "shampoo candidates" because that, and nothing else, is what the electorate votes for.
In “Parliament", the French comedy series that caused a stir in Brussels, the eccentric Torsten becomes an MEP running as an independent, supported by an army created on social media, in the name of participatory democracy. He shows up in the famous Brussels Hemicycle in his TikTok work suit, a kind of blue Superman with a cloak embroidered with golden stars. Torsten gives his speeches on behalf of his social media followers, who write them for him in real time, and reads them from a device with a futuristic screen attached to his wrist. When he realizes he's starting to utter all sorts of idiotic things like the flat Earth theory, Torsten drops it all, walks away, rips off his Superman cape and throws the rags down a futuristic Parliament walkway. The following sequences show him in a suit and tie, having become a conformist MEP, on the advice of the old, rhinocerized, but by no means imbecile German Christian Democrat Gesine. She explains to him that the tie and suit are a protective layer that allows you to remain human on the inside. It may seem strange, but with how crazy Torsten had become as an EU Superman, the tie seems to be less tight than the blue cape.
As things stand at the moment, Torsten's tie could be a happy ending. But since it's a series, we're waiting for the next season, which has already been announced.
