The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies convened on Wednesday in a solemn joint meeting, dedicated to the National Day of Romania – December 1.
Among the guests were members of the Government, former Presidents of Romania, the Custodian of the Romanian Crown, Margareta, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bucharest, the Archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church, the First Rabbi of Romania, the President of the Constitutional Court, the President of the High Court for Cassation and Justice, the BNR (National Bank of Romania) governor, the heads of SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service), SIE (Foreign Intelligence Service), SPP (Protection and Guard Service) and STS (Special Telecommunications Service), as well as the heads of diplomatic missions and of the international representative offices accredited in Bucharest.
Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marcel Ciolacu on Wednesday told the solemn sitting of Parliament dedicated to the National Day of Romania that the entire political class is bound to stabilize the country in the next period.
“The 103rd celebration of the unification of the Romanians from the old Kingdom, Bessarabia, Bucovina, Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures in a single state finds us today at the end of a political crisis. Through maturity and responsibility we have succeeded to bring the political chaos to end. We have managed to lay the foundations of a strong governing coalition. The efforts of the Greater Union architects, the fact that they have set aside their divergences and focused on what united them should be an inspiration for the entire current political class, especially during this difficult period where the health, economic, social and political crises have taken their toll on the lives of all Romanians. The entire political class has the duty to stabilize Romania in the coming period, regardless of political or electoral stakes. This day of celebration is a reminder that we are bound to work together. It’s a duty towards the Romanians and towards Romania,” Ciolacu said, pointing out that pride and political interests must be set aside.
In her address to the same sitting, Senate Vice President Alina Gorghiu (from the National Liberal Party) pointed out that December 1 signifies national unity, but that it also speaks of devotion, responsibility, duty, and political courage.
“We take the floor today, at the joint solemn sitting of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies dedicated to the National Day of Romania, but this is no time of joy in the country. Many of our fellow citizens are hard tried by the developments of the pandemic, by uncertainty, anxiety and worries for their loved ones. (…) The Greater Union belonged to the people. It began as an aspiration, as a national political project that transcended parties and borders, it required unimaginable sacrifices by hundreds of thousands of people and was completed as a democratic process through which the people from each province have chosen this path of unity,” Gorghiu said from the Parliament rostrum.
In his turn, deputy Szabo Odon from the Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR) said that his political formation and the Hungarian community have always wanted fair attitudes based on mutual respect and cooperation with the Romanian majority, and that those who permanently suspect a hidden goal in the fight of the Transylvania Hungarian ethnics for their rights are wrong.
“When it promotes a certain moment in its own history to National Day, a nation generally seeks to mark the achievement of independence, the change of regime or the accomplishment of an ideal of unity. In all these cases, the sages of the nation seek to integrate the positive feelings that are shared by all citizens,” said the UDMR lawmaker.
Deputy Beniamin Todosiu from the Save Romania Union said that this year, on their National Day, the Romanians are more divided than ever, that Romania is split between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, between politicians and the common people.
“Regrettably, in 2021 we celebrate National Day more divided than ever. We have a Romania within its boundaries and a Romania in the diaspora; we have a Romania of the vaccinated and a Romania of the unvaccinated; we have a Romania of the political right and one of the left; we have a Romania of the elderly and a Romania of the young, a Romania of the politicians, that is very different from the Romania of the common people. Brother Romanians, the times we live in have divided us, but we must not forget that the values that animated the makers of the Greater Union from 1918 are imprinted in the DNA of every Romanian,” Todosiu concluded, according to Agerpres.
Photo: www.basilica. ro
