"POT does not deserve to lead this country because it would bring it to autocracy"

Reporter: Why did you enter politics?

Monica Ionescu: I entered politics because I wanted to come up with something innovative, with a change. I know, you will say that in every type of election, change is desired, but I proposed a different type of concept. I proposed what I identified as a problem in our country, unlike abroad. Working as a lawyer in Switzerland, I interacted not only with citizens, but also with public institutions in that country and saw how things work. This functionality of public institutions in Switzerland captivated me and I decided that these things can also be done in our country.

Reporter: Can the viable model you are talking about be successfully applied in Romania or is there a need for adaptation to our national particularities?

Monica Ionescu: I recognize that there are cultural differences between the two states and we cannot apply everything we have seen identically, but there are issues that we dream of, we want to get there and to achieve them we will take over the good things and implement them on our model.

Reporter: You are basically talking about an interaction between models and not about creating our own, Romanian one.

Monica Ionescu: It is clear that people are inspired by each other and this is the only way we can function. Some are inspired by us, by what we have good, and we are inspired by the good things from them. But to think about what they have good, you have to see what works for them and, especially, what has worked for a long time, constantly, not for short periods or intermittently. You have to see what has worked for a long time, what has remained valid and what things their society is satisfied with. Because everything that happens in Romania starts from society. It now has a dissatisfaction that, whether it is induced or that the social classes are experiencing a certain state of dissatisfaction, indicates a certain situation of revolt. Going beyond the dissatisfaction they have due to personal shortcomings, I identified among our citizens the main dissatisfaction with the poor collaboration from state institutions and the malfunctioning of these institutions. Romanians complain that state institutions and civil servants defy them, do not react on time, postpone the resolution of received requests or that they function abusively. All these things have led to the current state of dissatisfaction.

• "We need politicians who believe in what they say"

Reporter: Can we say that you entered politics to reform state institutions?

Monica Ionescu: Yes, but not in the way of a fundamental reform, but rather to optimize, streamline the activity of public institutions, to communicatios development between citizens and these institutions, communication that must be much closer. When the citizen feels listened to by the public institution or the civil servant in front of him, when the state employee empathizes with the citizen, the latter begins to gain confidence in his life, in his daily life. I see the state as a parent who takes care of his children, that is, the citizens, or as a family to which citizens can turn when they are faced with a certain problem. Such a state gives the feeling of stability for each of its citizens, who will no longer try to leave for other states to find a purpose.

Reporter: Who is to blame that the institutions of the Romanian state are not at the level you describe?

Monica Ionescu: I believe that everything starts from education and from the development of a natural civic sense. That is, it is not about doing civic actions just for the sake of taking pictures at certain associations, planting trees or other social actions. I believe that civics is very important, but it must be cultivated long before and this can only be done through education from a young age. If civic sense were to develop naturally in our country, then every citizen, when he holds a public office - and not only - will understand that his role is to help other citizens and collaborate with them and his colleagues. Only then will all frustrations begin to disappear, to fall away.

Reporter: Although you told us that the fault for the current situation is the lack of education and civic sense, you still chose to do politics not within a classic party, but within a new political formation - the Young People's Party. Why?

Monica Ionescu: The classic parties have shown their potential to some extent. But I'm not saying that they are a bad thing, because they could reform, because society is in a constant state of change. The idea is that we need politicians who believe in what they say, regardless of which political party they come from, and who implement what they say. Then I think that a good politician must have sufficient capacity to listen to the person in front of him, who may have a better idea, and to change certain aspects together.

• "Everything that means autocracy, like "only I am right,' does not come from Christianity"

Reporter: What you are saying means tolerance.

Monica Ionescu: Absolutely. Without tolerance, nothing gets done. We say that we are a secular people, but also a Christian people. If we say that we are Christians, then the first thing we must promote is tolerance. Christianity has always promoted tolerance. Everything that means autocracy, like "only I am right,' does not come from Christianity. We must be very careful when someone promotes an idea or a certain theme, but does not prove to us that they are tolerant. This means that we cannot believe what the person is telling us.

Reporter: Your point of view is interesting. You told me why you didn't choose a classic party when you entered politics, why you chose a new party, but which party are you in now?

Monica Ionescu: I am not in any party now, I am currently a deputy unaffiliated with any political party. I guess you have learned that my husband and I were excluded from the Young People's Party by President Anamaria Gavrilă, but I do not wish to comment on the reasons for which that decision was made. As an unaffiliated deputy, I will not give up the reasons why I entered politics. And, in addition to optimizing and streamlining the functioning of state institutions, I want to have initiatives that raise culture to the level it deserves, that reform education, in the sense of radically changing the way of teaching, that is, the interaction between teachers and students, throughout the educational process, and that reform the way in which small farmers carry out their activity and are treated, especially those who practice subsistence agriculture. For them, I think it is very important to be reunited in cooperative associations, not like those from the communist regime, but like those that operate in Switzerland, where those associations are very well organized.

Reporter: Do you think that in the future Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union there should be more consistent incentives or subsidies for small farmers who are members of such cooperative associations?

Monica Ionescu: Certainly. This is necessary. But for these associations to emerge, total transparency is needed, in order to gain people's trust. And there is also a need for local communicators, who can explain, in a way that small farmers can understand, what it is all about and that these cooperative associations are not the same as those during the communist regime. At this moment, people have no confidence, they lose hope that they can get any additional financing, they give up farming agricultural lands and go to look for another job abroad. It would be ideal if small farmers in our country were supported to go on visits abroad to see how these cooperative associations work, because that way they will convince themselves that something like this can be done in Romania. Until then, I will try to talk to farmers in Switzerland to come and tell our people how things work.

• "What I did not accept was the lack of democracy in the party"

Reporter: Returning to culture, why is it one of your priorities?

Monica Ionescu: First of all, because culture is the basis for understanding things. We have always had and still have people of culture, but unfortunately they are still marginalized instead of being brought to the forefront. They should not be left behind the curtain to watch the debauchery from outside, but we must give them the necessary confidence to come forward and say why we must follow one path or another. You cannot be a man of culture if you do not have sensitivity, if you do not have empathy, if you do not have vision. Well, you find all these things in people of culture.

Reporter: Despite this, people of culture in our country stay away from politics. Why?

Monica Ionescu: Because... I will give you my example. I am also a man who is active in the cultural field, who has written books, even volumes of poetry. I entered politics and not long after, I ended up in the press in a ridiculous way, which people who know me know cannot possibly be true. That is precisely why people of culture shy away from entering politics. We need to find courageous people of culture, who will put themselves at the service of the citizens, because otherwise things cannot be changed. I believe that, if you have a little courage, you will succeed.

Reporter: Despite this, you were expelled from the party. Why?

Monica Ionescu: I think that by excluding me, an example was set for those who remained there. That is, it was conveyed to them in this way that if they have the courage to oppose the autocracy, they risk being excluded.

Reporter: Do you think that there is an autocracy in the POT at the moment?

Monica Ionescu: Yes. The Young People's Party is being led autocratically at the moment. I have been with this party, with MP Anamaria Gavrilă, I could say right from its founding. I helped with this. I liked her ideas because she talked about change, about what we should implement in Romania from what she saw abroad, and I said that I could add my ideas to hers. Especially since at that moment there was an unaffiliated MP who took over my initiatives to modify some normative acts and submitted them to Parliament. I said at that moment that I had found someone with whom I could collaborate and I thought that it would be like this all the time.

Reporter: And yet she gave up on you.

Monica Ionescu: I would like to know if she will ever be able to stand face to face with me, as I am in dialogue with you. I believe that a true leader must look into the eyes of those whom she has lost at some point. The idea is the following. I came close to her vision, but in the meantime, after POT managed to make the electoral threshold necessary to enter Parliament in the elections of December 1, 2024, things changed. I ignore the fact that my husband and I were isolated, we were not contacted much before, and there were even reproaches against us, but the idea of running for Neamţ and Bacău, each in one of the two counties, was considered. We entered Parliament, things went normally, but we never felt close to the party president, being already isolated. I felt that something had happened, that another vision of the party president had emerged. What I did not accept was the lack of democracy in the party, meaning that every opinion should be listened to, should count, because that is why we formed that political formation: to change things. I conveyed to the party president that if we, at the party level, cannot be democrats, cannot express our opinions, are not transparent, it means that POT does not deserve to lead this country because it would bring it to autocracy. And this is not possible.

• "Being a patriot does not mean not being tolerant"

Reporter: Do you think that the lack of education and the lack of tolerance led to the division of Romanian society that we see daily in the public space, especially on social networks?

Monica Ionescu: Yes, because we were not taught to tolerate. Although we say we are tolerant, we are not. Tolerance is learned at school, in the early grades, when children have to collaborate on certain projects with colleagues they may not like, may not understand, or may not have affinities or share the same hobbies. But despite this, they manage to find something in common to accomplish the project. If this were to happen at the level of the entire society, it would be ideal. And more something: being patriotic does not mean not being tolerant. That does not mean that we have to tolerate everything. For example, we cannot tolerate violence. If you want to be an autocrat and you think that you can lead an autocrat, you really have the feeling that through autocracy you rule, at some point, when you will be replaced, you will be crushed by that autocracy. That is why a political party must be guided by democratic principles.

Reporter: When did the POT transition to autocratic leadership? Is there a specific moment or did you notice certain aspects that foreshadowed such a change?

Monica Ionescu: Yes, I noticed, but I do not want to talk about something like that.

Reporter: Returning to education, do you think that it can bring the necessary changes that you are talking about?

Monica Ionescu: Yes, because I have a personal example. I carried out a project - Kids Philosophy Education - through which we taught children the first rules of philosophical morality, at a level that they can understand. The basic idea was to develop the civic sense of those children, to make them human. We invest in their intelligence for nothing, if we don't build the human being out of these children.

Reporter: Didn't you collide with the religion teachers because of this philosophical morality project?

Monica Ionescu: No, because Christianity should not be transformed into something fundamentalist. I think that Christian moral principles are not well understood, or rather people don't know that they predate Christianity, that is, they are well over 2000 years old. The concept of tolerance is much older than Christianity. You can't live in a society if you are not tolerant, if you are not balanced and if you don't offer something in return. And there is something else. We must not only maintain order, but also hierarchies, because we are not equal in everything. This preached equality, taken to the extreme, risks leading us into a skid in which we have the impression that we deserve everything. And it is not at all like that.

Reporter: Are you pro-EU or only pro-Romania?

Monica Ionescu: You can't be pro-Romania without being pro-European Union. It would be absurd to be only pro-Romania. You can't. What do we do? Do we build a wall around ourselves? We can't. The European Union is a structure that must continue, but it needs reform, by identifying what is not working and finding solutions to respond more quickly to the needs of European citizens.

Reporter: Romania in NATO or neutral?

Monica Ionescu: If it could be neutral to defend itself, then we leave it neutral. If not, then it would be better for it to remain in NATO. It depends on how capable Romania is of standing alone, that is, it is about the ability to stand without a guard at the door.

Reporter: Thank you.