I wouldn’t normally write or speak politics on the blog, since it’s not my area of expertise, but I do work with Social Media for a couple of years now, and I can’t hold myself from not sharing this to you. I’m not going to analyze the campaign or strategy here, though!

In Romania, my homeland, Sunday 16 november 2014, it was a big day in the history of democracy. Probably you all know one thing about this country: that it was under communism until 1989, december, when the leader Nicolae Ceausescu was executed in the revolution. Since then, the Social Democrats were leading the country most of the time. Yesterday, in the presidential elections, a new face was chosen, a christian-liberal (The Right) is going to lead the country for the next 5 years. The new president elected is Klaus Iohannis, a politician of german ethnicity. His chances to become a president were VERY LOW! Reasons for that are many, but some of them are:

• A man of german ethnicity
• He is a protestant in a country where orthodoxy is leading, and all other christian religions are considered sects, a country where the orthodox church has a lot of power;
• He is not a normal politician – at his roots he is a physics professor, and for the last 14 years he was the mayor of Sibiu, the most beautiful town in Romania, and the chosen cultural capital of Europe in 2007, under his lead;
• The party he ran in for the presidential elections has very low credibility in Romania;
• Moreover, he doesn’t speak as a typical Romanian politician, he doesn’t promise things, but facts like stopping the corruption by canceling the law of protection for the officials in Romania, including the president himself – fact that will lead to many, many people in-prisoned in the next months/years.
• The other candidate, Victor Ponta, is the actual Prime-Minister of Romania, so of course he has access to everything, including to the voting system in and outside Romania;
• The government didn’t provide enough voting sections in other countries, so thousands of Romanians weren’t able to vote, even after 9 hours of staying in lines. Scandals had occurred in front of the Embassies because the people were angry they weren’t aloud to vote, and as a result, many Romanians were gassed by the police. (Unofficial, we know why now, after the votes – outside Romania, the actual Prime-Minister didn’t have a chance in votes)
• The most important TV – Channels in Romania are owned by members in the party of the other candidate and they make lobby for him;
• All the other parties in Romania, were supporting the other candidate, making public the reasons of: He is german, he is not an orthodox, he doesn’t fight in the debate with the other candidate – probably too educated and classy for the politic class of Romania at the time.

I think one more important thing that you guys should know is that intellectual Romanians stopped voting long time ago, because the corruption was so high, that votes were stolen or bought, and everyone lost hope in the voting system! Until yesterday, when more than 64% from the Romanians spoke loud and decided the future of this beautiful country by voting someone that will bring Romania to the standards of EU.

Since, he didn’t have the same chances of lobbying in Tv-channels and other public media channels, he had a great team of social media and communication experts! The online environment was his only tool for showing us who he really is. His team created such a viral spread! He united all the Romanians from all around the world, and made them fight one more time since 89′, to get their country back. And they did! They didn’t only pushed the like and share buttons but they went out and voted, and their number was overtaking the other candidate.

It’s useless to tell you that those voting for this guy, are educated young people between 18 – 45 years old. And with few days before the elections, Angela Merkel was sending him a letter of support, since she trusts Romania will be in better hands under him. That’s quite cool!

So Europe, be aware, Romania starts to grow! And all thanks to Social Media and all other online tools, but mainly thanks to the people that woke up and went out to vote against the opposite side.

In 5 years, until the next elections, I wanna read this blog post, smiling, saying to myself I had right!

Even if I don’t live in Romania anymore, it will always be in my heart and I will always support the developing of this country. I want everyone to see how many beautiful things and people are in Romania! If you didn’t visit it yet, you should! If you don’t have any Romanian friends yet, you should make some! They are wonderful creatures with big hearts, they are family attached and hard working people. Of course, black sheep exists everywhere in the world…but look for the white ones! 🙂

If you want to know little bit more about Romania, check this video:

And if you ever think on planning a trip there, the best way is by going with someone that knows everything around, and I can recommend you with warmness Trip To Romania!