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PARTISAN REVIEW
year 1968 when, in Romania, in a bizarre reaction to the Soviet invasion
of Prague, Romanian youths joined, massively and enthusiastically, the
Communist Party! The Czechs had Charter 77; we the Romanians, the
1977 earthquake. They had Havel; we, the lliescu-Roman duo.
One cannot forget these things. The fiber of the nation was imbued
with them; they exist regardless of the ups and downs of history. By
contrast with other countries of the region, Czechoslovakia's integration
into Europe had nothing to do with mere political bovaryism.
Czechoslovakia is indeed part of Europe and not only geographically.
The country is confronting at this moment a series of problems, such as
nationalism. But these problems are part of the legacy the Soviets left
everywhere. I would call them the diseases that come from the absence of
dialogue. Incapable of protesting in front of Big Brother, the country
finds aberrations that are surfacing only now, when his all-seeing eye
closed for a moment. Beyond the problems inherent in any state in the
process of changing its political regime, Czechoslovakia breathes an air of
normality that shocks a tourist coming from the lower Danube. Yet the
surprise experienced when coming into contact with a country that has
regained normality is by no means bigger than the shock of readapting
to the convulsions one has left at home . One returns to a country whose
president knows the official results of a constitutional referendum days
before they are officially announced. One returns to a country where the
same president disregards the laws with Asiatic contempt, to a country
where the constitution has been voted on, although a large majority of
the citizens did not know what they voted for; to a country where my
old aunt, an ardent monarchist, said "Yes" to a republican constitution
because she was asked to do so by those on television; to a country
where the rural population was threatened with the prospect of being
forbidden to buy food from state-owned shops if it did not vote for the
current government.
What a difference there is between the vote given by the European
citizens of Czechoslovakia to Havel and the one given by my country
comin in Romania to Ion Iliescu! "But why?" I ask with amazement,
"have you still not realized, even after two years, whom you are dealing
with?"
The answer comes like thunder: "It suits us!"
"How do you mean?"
"Iliescu won't dismiss us from our jobs, and that suits us. With him,
we have peace. You saw the Peasant Party leader, Ratiu, how he showed
up at the voting, wearing a peasant's coat and bow-tie. Are we to ex–
pect justice from him? Or maybe from the King, in fact the ex-King,
who wants to divide the country among his flock of daughters?"
