Comments on: Are the Germans taking over Romania?

By: Dacia Felix

Dacia Felix — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:09:44 +0000

I am surprised that you don’t mention Dr Saed Arafat, of Palestianian origin, who reformed the Ambulance system in Romania and is a much respect sub-secretary in the Health Dept.

By: Ron Hulscher

Ron Hulscher — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:15:53 +0000

Actually the last person from a family of German origin who ruled Romania (till 1947), was king Michael von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who is still alive today. I wrote about him in Afoe as a comment on a article by Douglas Muir, which is to be found here: http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/europe-and-the-world/frozen-conflicts-transnistria/

The comment is titled “THE KING OF TRANSNISTRIA “
Ron.

By: JJ

JJ — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:39:15 +0000

As Paul points out, it does not look as though Geoana will win, the current tally indicate that he will trail the incumbent Basescu by a few tenths of a percent. Nevertheless, this does not entirely erase the possibility of a Johannis premiership, since Basescu has also hinted at the possibility of appointing the mayor if he wins.

By: Fruits and Votes » Prof. Shugart's Blog » More on the Romanian runoff

Fruits and Votes » Prof. Shugart's Blog » More on the Romanian runoff — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:41:26 +0000

[...] A Fistful of Euros, Alex Harrowell notes that, after finishing second in the first round of the presidential election, [...]

By: Mihai Marcu

Mihai Marcu — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:20:23 +0000

Alex,

While the idea of a German leading a government with Hungarian Party may seem strange, in reality it is not such a big deal. It is only a routine political arrangement. To quote a famous journalist, these elections marked a fight between the “fear of tomorrow” and “hatred towards corrupt elites” (the spooks you mentioned). Most likely, “fear of tomorrow” won.

1) Most likely the Social-Democrat candidate – Geoana- will win (3 exit polls are in his favor, with 50.8 to 51.6%).

2) Klaus Johannis (the possible German PM) is most likely to be appointed due to his good public image.

3) Since 1996, the Hungarians have always been part of Government – also for the good public image in respect of minority rights which was (and maybe still is, but not so significant) a liability of our policies.

Having a Romanian PM of self-declared rroma origin – now that would be a true sign of change.

By: Douglas Muir

Douglas Muir — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:45:08 +0000

Hungarians are still viewed askance, but — as Paul correctly points out — they’re just slightly too big a voting bloc to be ignored,. So every Romanian government buys them off with a couple of minor ministries and some juicy government contracts for the ethnic Hungarian party’s leadership. This has led to some disaffection, as little of this trickles down to ordinary Hungarians in Romania, but on the other hand if they start splitting their vote they’re likely to lose what influence they have.

Ethnic Germans used to be viewed with a mixture of admiration and resentment. As their numbers dwindled in the 1990s, the resentment faded, so that the admiration now (mostly) dominates. They’re seen as hard-working, organized, and somewhat more honest than Romanians, and there’s a belated realization that their mass exodus under and after Ceausescu was a huge loss for Romania.

Doug M.

By: Are the Germans taking over Romania? | afoe | A Fistful of Euros … | World News

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:30:41 +0000

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By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:13:46 +0000

Alex, it seems that Mircea Geoana, the Social Democratic candidate, will not win the elections after all and thus Mr. Johannis will, most likely, not head the government.

I agree, it is a good thing that he made till here. Transylvanian Germans (and Germans generally) are regarded favorably in Romania; in this respect the Romanian case is different from, let’s say, Poland or the Czech Republic.
Also bear in mind that Romania was ruled by a German dynasty for more than 80 years and that period is generally regarded favorably.

Also, the Hungarian party has taken part in every government between 1996-2008 so there’s not really a big change in there.

From that respect it really would have been something if the prime-minister were a Gypsy/Roma or a Hungarian ethnic.

I’m not sure about the “CIA operating a secret jail in the suburbs of Bucharest”. I know there were articles written about this subject, I think it could have happened but I haven’t seen any evidence until now. And anyway I don’t see a connection between CIA secret jails and the level of ethnic tolerance of Romanians.

By: P O Neill

P O Neill — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:34:29 +0000

It also caught the attention of the New York Times.