Taking on the New Constitution

By Daniel Ganga
email: dan55ro@yahoo.com

"Wake up, Romanians! Administrative clerks and those who work in the Justice Department cannot be forced to speak in the Romany Gypsy language."
That warning first appeared on the "Orthodox –Advice" web-site as a letter entitled "No Changes to the Constitution." It was signed by 12 different cultural and political non-governmental organizations. The twelve organizations who backed the letter included the Christian Forum of the New Right, the League for Anti-Romanian Fight, the Ladder Group, the Vatra Romaneasca Union, the Union of War Veterans and of the Successors of War veterans, and the Association of Christian Orthodox Romanian Students (ASCOR).
The Ladder group stands out for the vehemence of its attacks against the new Constitution and its opposition to a provision which permits national minorities to use their own languages for official government communications and in legal matters. In a manifesto entitled "About the End of Romania as a State" the Ladder group provides its own special interpretation of articles 119 and 127. "Romanians ," the group warns, "will be compelled to learn the languages of minorities " and "this will impose an ethnic persecution on a national level"
On the other hand, the students in the Association of Christian Orthodox Romanian Students (ASCOR) have decided to take a more active role in getting their co-nationals to wake upto the danger. For the last several years, the association has mobilized young people and students by sponsoring religious and charity functions that leaned towards fundamentalism and ASCOR is admired and supported by many orthodox priests and other clergy in Romania. But in recent months, ASCOR adopted a new agenda. Members of the group used leaflets and public speeches urging people to boycott the Referendum for the Constitution scheduled to take place on the 18th and the 19th of October.
After the holy mass on October 12th, ASCOR spread leaflets urging: "Do not vote for the Change of the Constitution. Do not allow to become strangers in your own country through this revision of the Constitution!"
The leaflets highlighted the incriminating articles that it felt should motivate voters either not to participate in the elections, or to vote against the new constitution. The greatest opposition focused on new articles in the Constitution that permit ethinic groups to use their own languages and on a series of new regulationsthat will allow foreigners to own land in Romania. "These articles provide the foundation for a multinational state and will lead to the federalization of Romania. " Mircea Catalin, ASCOR’s president, noted in a recent speech. "In areas in Romania where national minorities live in significant numbers, they will hire only people who speak both languages for adminstrative jobs, and they will be only the members of these ethnic minorities."
Although she could not quote the articles in any detail, Christina, a 3rd year student in the Faculty of Psychology, enthusiastically volunteered to spread the leaflets and to warn against the dangers of the constitutional reforms. Like her, many of those being encouraged to oppose the new constitution at a recent church mass didn’t know which minority languages were being considered or when and how they might be used, but the public did seem to understand that Romania was in danger and there was a feeling that it was the duty of everyone to save the country. "Foreigners will buy our land and we will be forced to learn the languages of the minorities" said student when asked why she thought that she shouldn’t vote for the revision of the Constitution. Although this student has Hungarian and had Romany Gypsy friends, who would like to be able to express themselves in their maternal languages, she didn’t think that it was important, the message was crystal clear: it’s time for the true believers to join the heroes and the saints of the past centuries. Anyone who votes for the changes in the Constitution, is not a real Christian. Beyond any shadow of a doubt: if you love Christ, if you love your country you must vote against …so prepare for battle. For ASCOR, the only valid and acceptable interpretation of the Constitution articles is opposition. Many of the students eager to save their country were unaware that the Romanian Orthodox Church was urging believers to vote and to have a responsible attitude towards the new constitution. "The church should not be involved in politics," the speaker of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Father Constantin Stoica, recently declared. "The church has always preached a responsible civic attitude for believers and priests. Those who urge members of their parishes to vote one way or another act in their own name. They do not represent the Romanian Orthodox Church. They only speak for themselves."
Some political organizations like the Greater Romania Party and "The New Right" – the descendant of the Iron Guard Legionnaire’s movement of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu opposed the new constitution because of a more overt political agenda. "Isn’t it enough that they (the Gypsies) speak the Gypsy language in their own families, in the streets, in some churches and even in schools?" says Tudor Ionescu, president of the New Right, "Now they want public administration clerks and people working in the Justice System to speak their language. I think that’s too much."
Opposition to the new constitutional provisions moved from the debates in the legislature into sermons delivered in many churches. While the church itself may not have officially adopted a specific political discourse, it did not take effective action to stop its priests from delivering political messages to their congregations. Until Orthodox students awake and the Romanian Orthodox church decides to change the message that is being disseminated, ethnic minorities will remain a public enemy in the minds of many of the youthful Christian faithful.

[Post script: Despite the furious debate over constitutional reforms, the government succeeded in winning the referendum]

[return to other stories]