CLR: Ponta is running a campaign which incites to hatred, appealing to most basic human instincts

During today, in the context of the electoral campaign, PM Victor Ponta stated the following: “Our project is a project for the whole of Romania and it is a project for people. Mr. Iohannis talks to things, I talk to people, to Romanians. Mr. Iohannis is a thing, I am a human, a Romanian, like all those from Transylvania, from Moldova, from Oltenia, from Bucharest. I want us to build a country for people, not for things (…) You have seen them today, the other evening, there around Iohannis, around the thing they have done, for Mr. Iohannis is a thing, he is not a political man.” [1]

After PM Ponta started his electoral campaign characterizing himself as being Romanian and Orthodox in a manner which would have suggested that Romanianhood and Orthodoxy were in danger (“I don’t want anybody accusing me or saying that it’s a flaw the fact that I am Romanian or Orthodox in my own country” [2]) in the context where his main contender is neither a Romanian ethnic nor of Orthodox religion;

after the Ponta campaign, through its spokesperson Gabriela Vânceanu Firea called Mr. Iohannis “an incomplete person” because he does not have children[3];

After After which, also today, in order to again raise the flag of the “Hungarian danger” candidate Ponta lies by saying that Mr. Szilagyi, one of the Hungarian runners for president, wants to tear Transylvania apart from Romania, and by consequence, claims he would not have liked to have his support, and implicitly neither that of the Romanian citizens who voted for Mr. Szilagyi[4];

the PM running for President Ponta, from a position which enjoys maximum public attention, calls his contender a “thing”, taking away from him the very attributes of humanity. We draw attention to the fact that the thinking mechanism whereby those who are not like us are portrayed as if they lacked humanity represents the sine qua non condition for what led to the biggest tragedies in history, allowing for the “justification” of the most heinous crimes through the dehumanization of those to become victims.

Such a speech is not only profoundly destructive for  the Romanian society, with a potential to incite and set people against each other, keeping the people in the area of primal instincts, incapable to accept as equal those different by religion, ethnicity, family model, and all those who generally do not fit the model of those who are in a majority within the confines of the country’s borders, but, what is more, when the message for the country is that a contender to the highest state position is not human, anything becomes possible.

We also draw attention to the fact that the silence of state institutions which are mandated to sanction such speech, all the more during electoral campaign, when the potential to do harm is maximum, shows complete politization and the bankruptcy of the rule of law in Romania.

Contact person: Delia Niţă, Anti-discrimination Programme Manager, 0728033480, delia@crj.ro


[1] I.R., Victor Ponta: Iohannis este un lucru, eu sunt român/Nu vreau să mai primim ordine din afara ţării, noi ştim singur cum este mai bine pentru România (Victor Ponta: Iohannis is a thing, I am Romanian/ I don’t want us to keep getting orders from abroad, we know on our own what is best for Romania), Hotnews, 04.11.2014, available at: http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-politic-18458205-victor-ponta-iohannis-este-lucru-sunt-roman-nu-vreau-mai-primim-ordine-din-afara-tarii-noi-stim-mai-bine-romania.htm http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-politic-18458205-victor-ponta-iohannis-este-lucru-sunt-roman-nu-vreau-mai-primim-ordine-din-afara-tarii-noi-stim-mai-bine-romania.htm (accesat la 04.11.2014)

[2] Liviu Dadacus, Ponta la lansarea candidaturii: Nu vreau să mă acuze nimeni că sunt roman sau orthodox în ţara mea (Ponta upon launching his candidacy: I don’t want anybody accusing me for being Romanian or Orthodox in my own country), Mediafax, 29.07.2014, available at: http://www.mediafax.ro/politic/ponta-la-lansarea-candidaturii-nu-vreau-sa-ma-acuze-nimeni-ca-sunt-roman-sau-ortodox-in-tara-mea-13001004. (accessed at: 04.11.2014)

[3] Departamentul Politic, Gabriela Vrânceanu Firea reclamată la CNCD pentru declaraţiile privind familiile fără copii. Reacţia senatorului PSD (Gabriela Vrânceanu Firea petitioned against with the NCCD for statements regarding families without children. The reaction of the SDP senator), 09.10.2014, available at: http://www.mediafax.ro/politic/gabriela-vranceanu-firea-reclamata-la-cncd-pentru-declaratiile-privind-familiile-fara-copii-reactia-senatorului-psd-13374503(accessed at:  04.11.2014)

[4] I.R., Victor Ponta: Iohannis este un lucru, eu sunt român/Nu vreau să mai primim ordine din afara ţării, noi ştim singur cum este mai bine pentru România (Victor Ponta: Iohannis is a thing, I am Romanian/ I don’t want us to keep getting orders from abroad, we know on our own what is best for Romania), Hotnews, 04.11.2014, available at: http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-politic-18458205-victor-ponta-iohannis-este-lucru-sunt-roman-nu-vreau-mai-primim-ordine-din-afara-tarii-noi-stim-mai-bine-romania.htm(accesed at 04.11.2014).

Please find attached the statement here