We bring you a translation of the interview of the editor-in-chief of the online platform Oneet with the newly elected Romanian President Nicušor Dan, during his visit to Warsaw.
“If I understand the situation in Poland, the main difference between the two candidates is in their approach to issues, such as compliance with the rule of law, and secondly to cooperation within Europe, which is important in this historical moment,” emphasizes the elected Romanian President Nicušor Dan in an interview with Bartosz Węglarczy.
Mr. President, thank you for your presence. Immediately after this interview, you are going to the march of Rafał Trzaskowski. Why?
I think it is important that we have a political leadership in Poland that is associated with our values. And political leadership in Poland, which will fight for the European Union.
What do you mean when talking about promoting the European Union? Where do you want the European Union to go? Where do you see the Union by five or ten years?
These are two things. The first is safety and common safety requires a common effort. I am a big fan of the European Union program for arming.
Second, we operate on the global market. We are in global competition. Europe must be more competitive. And for this we need to exist in Europe countries that think the same. Then we have questions of democracy, freedom of expression, all these things are important. Also for prosperity, for economic issues.
So do you think Rafal Trzaskowski would fit in Europe more than Karol Nawrocki?
Yes, I think so if I understand the situation in Poland. To the last question: it is also important for Europe to respond well to illegal migration. This is important for all the countries that are at the border. If I understand the situation in Poland, the main difference between the two candidates is in their approach to issues, such as compliance with the rule of law, and secondly, to cooperation within Europe, which is important at this historical moment.
Romanian President about the support of Ukraine and its NATO membership
One of the main differences between Karol Nawrock and Rafal Trzaskowski is their attitude to Ukraine. Karol Nawrocki said he didn’t want to see Kiev in NATO, while Rafal Trzaskowski thinks we should bring Kiev to the Alliance as soon as possible. What do you think about it? Should Ukraine join NATO or are you against it?
Of course, it can’t be done right away, so it’s a question of many years. Of course, as a Romanian citizen, I would like to have a border with my friends. Not with the country with which we have a historical past. Nowadays it is important to help Ukraine to be peace, because it is a question of our security and we would rather have a common border with Ukraine, this Ukraine, and not with a country like Belarus.
Secondly, we have certain international contracts from the 1980s that brought us peace and prosperity, and Russia has violated these rules and we do not want it to be repeated. For this reason, it is important that we help Ukraine to achieve the most sensible peace.
Do you want Ukraine to enter NATO in the future, not now?
Yes.
Will you support it?
Yes, because we prefer the neighbors with whom we have good relationships.
Will you continue to send armaments and make diplomatic efforts to help Ukraine?
Yes, I think it right. Although I previously questioned many Romanian politicians on various issues, the support of Ukraine was a good thing and we will continue to support it logistically and financially.
Presidential elections in Romania and the fight against misinformation. “There was a huge mobilization”
Of course, we all watched what was happening in the presidential campaign in Romania. The cancellation of the first round … We followed a number of misinformation that was used in this campaign. Could you comment on this? Could you tell us and explain, as we are also talking about misinformation in the Polish campaign, how did you fight them? What can you do against misinformation? And did Russia try to interfere with the presidential elections in Romania?
Yes, this is a very interesting question. I think it was two levels. First, there is a network of small pages and each of them is followed by hundreds of thousands of people. Have been built in the last ten years. Unfortunately, we did not pay much attention to them. So there are sites that talk about health, natural medicine, religion, sport, lifestyle, everything ….
But not about politics.
Not necessarily about politics. They are watched by many people, together they are probably millions. And at the right moment began to transfer support to one candidate [ide o Călina Georgesca – pozn. red.] That was one phenomenon. And secondly, in November we saw a sophisticated campaign. It consisted in the division of the public into groups in view of their interests. And this campaign was aimed at targeting different messages to each social group. She was very professional and certainly very expensive.
However, we do not have evidence of how much this campaign has cost. A sophisticated technique was also used in the tictoku, which bypassed the algorithms and allowed the candidate very good visibility. Intelligence reports from some countries have raised questions why Tiktok is not responding to such activities.
How did it stop?
I think what happened in May in the second round of elections in Romania was a huge mobilization of the population. It included three key aspects. One was a pro -European direction. The second was economic issues. As Mr. George Simion said [porazený krajne pravicový kandidát – pozn. red.]its aim was to nationalize some companies. There would be some intervention of the state into the economy, which worried people.
They didn’t like it.
Yes, because people understood that in economic issues, Romania is exposed to significant risks, so there was a difference between democratic discourse and the other, very violent. During these two weeks, many people have spoken to the politics: “Listen, it’s a question of direction. Please stay on the right track”.
So there were politicians, entrepreneurs, footballers – everyone said, “Listen, this is a big question, a big social question. Let’s go in the right direction.”
Can it be stopped in the future? How do you stop misinformation that could affect people in the following elections in Romania? This time it will be parliamentary elections.
Now I do not have the answer, but technically I know that the Moldovan authorities are much better in this than ours. They helped us close some pages spreading misinformation.
We want to restore the balance in the exercise of freedom of expression and trust of people in the authorities.
