PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu told participants on Friday at the Summer School for Young Social Democrats taking place in Neptun that he knew what they were facing, likening the situation to driving a car without brakes but having to reach its destination at the exact time.
He recalled attending the first Summer School for Young Social Democrats held after 1990, when they were all ‘sleepy and somewhat dehydrated’.
‘I’m glad to see you again. (…) Many, many years ago, I believe the first summer school I attended—and someone asked me at the entrance—was in 1998 in Ialomița, at Amara, Claudiu (ed. note – Claudiu Manda). That’s where it was held. At about this time of day, infernally early from both your point of view and mine, we were all sitting together at the TSD gathering, more or less propping one another up; we were young then, “sleepy and somewhat dehydrated”. The years have indeed gone by; we have remained sleepy and somewhat depleted, as it were. Youth has gone, as the malicious tongues say, since obviously neither I nor my colleagues (…) would admit it. But what I realise when I look at you is that we started building even then,’ Grindeanu said.
The PSD leader stressed the importance of building a team.
‘We understood then that we should form a team, and this can be seen not only in me and the secretary general, Claudiu Manda, but also in all our other colleagues from the same generation. Side by side, you should know that we gradually built a team that grew and ultimately delivered tangible results, but don’t think it was easy for us. So I can tell you, hand on heart, that I know what you are facing. I know what I went through in Timiș in those years. Claudiu knows what he went through in Dolj. We all know what you are facing. Being a young social democrat now is like driving a car without brakes, but you have to reach your destination at the exact time,’ he said.
Grindeanu spoke about the social democrats’ ‘formula’.
‘And you sit there wondering how you will manage and whether it is ultimately worth it. How? Here I can certainly give you an authentic answer. This has always been our formula, as social democrats. We have always been ourselves, even when we were criticised, reprimanded or congratulated. That is why I did not come here today to tell you what to do,’ the social democrat said.
He told the young people what he did not want them to do.
‘I don’t want you to be young, beautiful and free, with your phone lights switched on. I don’t want you to shout on command next to giraffes, mimicking freedom of thought. I don’t want you to insult your parents or grandparents simply because they have a different political choice. And above all, I would not want to see you full of hatred towards everyone who does not share your views. I would like to see you—or to see in you—what I want to see in my two children as well, namely authenticity, respect and a vision. Be TSD—young, serious and dynamic. It is worth it despite the wave of hatred and the online muck—as I cannot call it anything else—your work is visible and the results are tangible,’ the PSD leader also said.
Source: AGERPRES
