The state of democracy in Romania and the European elections

Three weeks ago I started a course of Italian for the volunteers of Save the Children. Yesterday I started the lesson showing to 10-15 young people (all girls and one guy), aged between 16 and 30, the famous picture of the Chinise guy that stopped the tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijin. I asked the volunteers what happened there 20 years ago.

No one knew. I'm afraid that in a while no one will remember Ceausescu anymore, or will regret his era. Like in Italy with Mussolini.

Second source of inspiration: the past days I asked to 7 Romanian collegues (women aged 30-55) whether they were going to vote or not for the European Parliament. Only 2 of them were undecided, the others were sure that they were not going to vote.

So today I invented a small questionnaire and I sent it to 23 young Romanian friends.

I asked them:
1) are you going to vote on Sunday for the European Parliament?
2) If not, why?
3) In your opinion, what is the most urgent problem in Romania? Are the politicians doind anything for that?
4) What is your degree of trust in the Romanian democracy? (High, medium, low)
5) What is your degree of trust in the EU? The same, high, medium, low
6) Did you expect more from the European integration?
7) Do you still want to change the world? If you're not going to vote, how do you think you'll be able to transform the reality around you?

I'm waiting for the results. I think some of them will not answer cause here people don't talk easily about these kink of subjects. Ceausescu's heritage.

I'm worried about the state of democracy in Italy, and I see that here things are not so different, and as well in the civilized Holland, where the extreme right will have an "unexpected" success at these European elections. I'm worried that the crises could lead Europe back in the past, in Italy that's already happening.

An editorial of Adevarul published today, "Democratia inseamna vot" (democracy means vote), says: "Cine ne poate garanta ca noua era democratica este eterna?"