Romania must be a free country in which „any of the normal rights of modernity can be exercised”, but in which there must be „respect for what is traditional and the majority,” said Crin Antonescu, who was validated as candidate in the presidential election on Sunday, at the Palace of Parliament, at the extraordinary congress of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
„To preserve one’s national identity means to know the way home, even if you live thousands of kilometers away, even if you don’t return geographically, identity is more than geography, identity is soul. Romanians’ identity cannot be in danger unless it is falsified, unless young people are misled or are not sufficiently educated. This is why we need to bring order and even more order in politics, in public institutions and in schools. We need a school that can produce, mould, and give society young people who are bold and not brash, young people who are educated and not just misinformed. We need young people who understand that respect for an elderly person is fundamental to a civilized world. We need people who understand through education, through culture, (…) that Romania must be a free country, where any of the normal rights of modernity can be exercised, but where there must be respect for what is traditional and the majority,” Antonescu said in his speech to the Social Democrats.
„I believe, just as the prime minister and as the new president of the United States do, that the family is made up of a man and a woman. I believe, at the same time, that we must guarantee the freedom of every possible choice in nature, including of a sexual nature. But I believe that as concerns the family, in all its forms, in terms of education and in terms of public manifestations, it is very good that this should remain our private choice. And I am telling you, frankly, that I do not want a country where we have a heterosexual parade in one week and a homosexual parade in another week, each in his or her privacy, without any parade. Two, we are a Christian country. That is not an exclusive statement, it is an identity and historical statement, but we are a country in which people belonging to other confessions, other religions, as well as atheists, have absolutely equal rights to express themselves, to practice their beliefs or convictions to the same extent. But the laws, customs and practices must protect and guarantee respect for those forms that are defining for the national identity, for the national tradition and for everything that in the eyes of most Romanians are things above and beyond our current life, which we can never trample on or insult,” Antonescu said.
He also emphasized that more order is needed, even in the streets.
„We need, ultimately, to bring order, even in the streets, more than it is. I believe that the majorities, the government, the parliamentary majorities in the years to come will have to see to the fact that in this country we have come to disregard the forces of law and order. I’m talking about the police, I’m talking about the gendarmes, I’m talking about the manifestations of violent crime, which are not tolerable anywhere in a democratic country and in a strong country. We will have to bring order and guarantee and defend what tolerance and freedom mean, up to the limit at which we can defend ourselves from intolerance and guard against the restriction of freedom. There is not and must not be, if we are truly democratic, tolerance for intolerance and freedom for extremism. I can very well imagine how all these things can be put into practice by a parliamentary majority, by a government, by cooperation between the institutions that make decisions, including the president,” Antonescu said.
AGERPRES
