A woman, civic activists, career politicians, quasi-unknown people. This would be the Roma’s offer, candidates on the lists of several parties for the parliamentary elections on Sunday, November 30.
The seven Roma candidates, some of them undertaking somehow the role of “Romania’s Obama”, are as follows: Dana Rozalia Varga (from PNL), Costel Bercus (PSD), Ioan Gruia Bumbu (PNL), Tudor Gheorghe (PRM), Emanuel Onoriu (PNG), Nicolae Paun (Roma Party „Pro Europa”), Madalin Stefan Voicu (PSD).
At a first reading, one might be surprised by the variety of political options. The Roma candidates opted for parties of all political colors, from a center-right party, now at power – the National Liberal Party, to a center-left party – the Social Democrat party, up to the New Generation Party or the Great Romania Party, not an easy fit in ideological terms, anyway, parties that sometimes displayed an anti-minority attitude.
Therefore, the Roma candidates are not very much stuck on the ideological orientation, as they place the accent rather on the need to represent the people – most often, ethnic Roma – from the college where they are candidates.
The elections shall bring one certainty: the Parliament will have at least one representative of the Roma, more precisely at least the candidate from the Roma Party, who based on the current legislation, is automatically taking a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. For the others, it’s more difficult to predict the chances, but hope is last to die, anyway...
However, the current campaign presents several premiers. First of all, we have the first Roma woman to join the competition for a deputy seat: Dana Rozalia Varga, affiliated to PNL, is the candidate for the Uninominal College 7 from the Timis county.
In an interview for the online newspaper RomaWorld (www.romaworld.ro), Dana Varga says she wants to be “the voice of the people from Lugoj in the Parliament” and that she shall take specific actions in the following fields: economy, healthcare and education. “I shall first focus on increasing the economic potential of Lugoj, by attracting European funds and investment funds”.
Varga, who has been working in the central administration for some time now, as advisor to prime-minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, plans to focus during the mandate on: decent salaries, new projects for social housing, as well as on continuing the existing programs undertook by the Government and creating an integrated scholarship system to prevent high-school dropout.
The situation of women in the college where she plans to be a deputy is also an important issue in her campaign. In this respect, Dana Varga’s actions shall focus on the integration of women on the labor market, as well as on supporting managerial initiatives.
Nicolae Paun is the candidate of the Roma Party “Pro-Europa” in all uninominal colleges for the Chamber of Deputies, being the representative of the minority party that will automatically appoint a representative in the Parliament. Thus Paun, who does not have a counter-candidate, can state in his electoral slogan “Choose one for all”.
If we are to consider the experience and notoriety, the Roma candidate with the biggest chances to make it to the Parliament would be the PSD choice for the Uninominal College 1 from Giurgiu, Madalin Stefan Voicu. However, he is on the “black list” of candidates drafted by the Coalition for a Clean Romania (www.romaniacurata.ro) because he did not sign the Rule of Law Pact 2008. Normally, this should not influence the voters too much.
Ioan Gruia Bumbu, president of the National Agency for Roma and the PNL candidate in the Uninominal College 20 from district 5 of Bucharest, is somehow “playing” home, as his college is in the Ferentari neighborhood, an area mainly inhabited by ethnic Roma.
In the electoral show from Radio France International, on Monday, November 24, Bumbu, with experience in the local and central administration, pointed out that he wants to represent the Roma community from Ferentari in the Parliament because he knows best the problems they are facing.
“My campaign was run next to the voters, in the field. My team and I reviewed the real problems of the people from Ferentari. I am in the neighborhood every day, I talk to the people and I realized that they need jobs, dispensaries and housing, there is too much dirt, garbage”.
He thinks that these problems cannot be ignored and that “an MP must help with laws and concrete actions in finding solutions for the real problems of the people. We must be able to remove the causes of the social problems, to no longer have these effects”. In addition, Bumbu said we need a new generation in the politics, and given that he is young, he has a more pragmatic approach to politics. Nevertheless, the chances for him to win are quite low because he runs against Gigi Becali and Oana Niculescu Mizil, supported by Marian Vanghelie, the mayor of district 5.
Another first in the elections was the candidacy of a young Roma, a very well-known civic activist in this environment, on the lists of a party that was often criticized for its policies on minorities.
A candidate from the PSD-PC alliance in the Uninominal College 4 from Calarasi, Costel Bercus considers that the Roma issues are not different from the issues of the other people. “For the Roma, these issues may be somehow aggravated by intolerance, discrimination, sometimes even exclusion”, stated Bercus in an interview for Divers.ro.
“It’s true that until these elections, the Roma minority was considered a mass easy to manipulate by those who took advantage of their poverty, illiteracy and lack of education and correct information. They were bought in, and they allowed themselves to be bought in, either with electoral gifts, or even with money. This is precisely why my electoral campaign is focused especially on the experience I have in education projects and other interventions I organized, supported and developed for the inclusion of underprivileged categories”, he stated.
Costel Bercus, former president of the Romani Criss Association, says he chose to be on list of the PSD-PC alliance because the program they launched in this campaign is focused on the numerous, average people. “For instance, it’s difficult to promote by liberal measures strategies that can even out integration gaps”, he says, “because they relate to a clearly protectionist, corrective and social-popular direction. There are statements, but the perspectives of covering them with concrete actions are pretty few, if you don’t have the support of the parliamentary majority”.
Emanuel Onoriu’s chances to succeed, as the candidate of PNG in the Uninominal College 1 from the capital’s district 1, are estimated as low. In an editorial published by Romaworld.ro, journalist Petru Zoltan states that Onoriu “was thrown in the fight to fill in the seats, given that Becali’s party does not have too many people. Hoping that the Roma will be thus attracted to vote for him, he shall get some notoriety”.
Tudor Gheorghe, president of the Tudor Foundation from Ploiesti and candidate of the Great Romania Party in the Uninominal College 9 from Prahova, stated on the discussion forum Rom_link that he chose the PRM list because he wouldn’t fit on any other lists “as others made important donations to the parties”. However, Tudor Gheorghe seems optimistic regarding his chances – although the Roma haven’t really voted with PRM so far – and he wishes “good luck to all Romanians running for the Parliament, regardless of their political affiliation, because blood is thicker than water”. (Mihaela Dumitrascu, Marian Chiriac – DIVERS – www.divers.ro)