What was the German doing in... Romania?

"Make, I'm tired of living with an old fogey like you. Don't come looking for me; I have gone over the border with my German guy into Hungary..."

"In Bulgaria, what would the German be doing in Bulgaria?"

The state of confusion of the characters created by Romanian playwright I.L. Caragiale, as can be seen, is not a literary construction, but rather a matter that is part of our day-to-day existence, generated by the inevitable reaction of regular citizens in response to the impenetrable surrealism that Romania is living in, apparently isolated from the outside world and its rules, when in reality it is dragged every which way by the waves of history, without even understanding the "hows" and "whys" of the misfortunes or joys that it experiences.

Just like how, out of the blue, we found ourselves with a visit in Bucharest from the most important political in Germany, at the moment, and who has been one of Europe's leaders "behind the curtains". No, it isn't Mrs. Merkel, as some would be tempted to believe, but Mr. Wolfgang Schäuble. On every channel of institutional communication we are told that the visit is an official one. The unavoidable inference: it is the result of an invitation extended by the Romanian government, upon the initiative of the Finance Ministry, which is also the host of the notorious guest. The man came to Bucharest because he has a message to convey to Romania, to its authorities and to the citizens of this country. And we are entitled to know what we he had to say. The standard course of such events should have unfolded before our eyes: the official framework of the talks in the Ministry of Finance, the reception, the official photo, snapshots from the debate table, which was required to have the flags of the two countries, images with an official column and meetings with the Prime-minister and why not, even with the President of Romania. Instead of this insipid, but mandatory film, which was supposed to have the added benefit of official statements for the press made by the institutions that hosted W. Schäuble's activities in Bucharest, we had a public, informal reunion, both by its nature and through the area that hosted it, where the ads of the sponsors, foreign banks that operate in Romania, stuck out like a sore thumb. Coincidence or not, one of them, belonged to the "angry enemies" mad at Romania, at its Government and Parliament, because of the law of giving in payment and that of the conversion of CHF-denominated loans. In the reunion, the German finance minister was accompanied by his Romanian peer. The former made no secret of the private nature of the meeting, while the latter tried as hard as she could to convince people that this was an official action, of the institution that she represents, the Romanian government! If stupidity were painful, someone at the official table would have crawled around in pain, in front of the audience! How can one not notice the obvious discrepancy in the way the play was staged?!! Unless...!

Unless it wasn't the stage direction that was wrong, but the position of the Romanian official! Unless, the very Romanian finance minister wanted to award herself the merits of an official meeting that wasn't actually official, which wasn't their project and which they didn't organize, either! Any subsequent attempts to get a clear-cut answer from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the nature of the visit in Bucharest of the German finance minister ran up against an illegal and unacceptable wall of silence. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the legal obligation to clarify this aspect, not just for the Romanian public. And with that, we are exiting the realm of anecdotes, and going into the essence of the problem. Because the issue isn't the nature of the Schäuble's visit to Bucharest, but rather, the institutional behavior of those who end up occupying and exercising official positions in Romania. The playing at foreign policy, visits and pleasure trips vaguely disguised as official and diplomatic actions, and even worse, meetings of the Romanian government held in other countries, or who knows in what mansions, monasteries or taverns and other such "indulgences" that our officials engage in, struck by acute pangs of institutional stupidity, are all things that are not only forbidden, but illegal and resulting in legal consequences that may not be ignored, or partially overlooked. Romania isn't, can't be, shouldn't be allowed for even one second to become the toy of some illiterates, (or reckless educated fools) when it comes to public administration and state policy. The fact that a Romanian minister participates in a private event, in a public space, together with an official of a foreign government, is a fact which in itself isn't harmful. The attempt by a member of the Romanian government to present a private event as a state sanctioned one is not just a common scam, of a common crook, but a gesture that is unacceptable in a state ruled by the law, which immediately requires sanctions such as resignation and legal consequences. Given that both the Prime-Minister and the Romanian president have become part of the visit in question, it is absolutely mandatory that they distance themselves from it, starting with the unequivocal clarification of the nature of Wolfgang Schäuble's visit to Bucharest.

Only then will we be able to clarify the answer to the key question: what was the German doing in....Romania?!