The headline is a political pamphlet, but this text is for real.
In their public appearances, husband and wife team Călin and Cristela Georgescu project a bizarre picture of paranoia.
First of all, what does it say that they always walk flanked by bodyguards, something you rarely see in Romania, let alone in other European countries, with a politician or his family.
This habit is so abnormal in normal Europe, yet is perfectly normal in the most abnormal country on the continent – post-Soviet Russia.
In Moscow, the bodyguard culture has been ubiquitous in the political and business worlds for the past three decades. And the Russian bodyguard has a “tough” trait: he usually belongs to the hardened species you find in the gym and on the battlefield, but also in armed or security structures, as well as in conflict zones.
As a matter of fact, in addition to their anti-Western discourse and pro-Russian political agenda and support from the Putin regime, Călin & Cristela reveal themselves as “Russified” even in this aspect – the obsession of always being guarded, of having a strident group of bodyguards, of being near these “guard dogs” who acquired their experience in various militarized structures and even in conflict zones.
The Georgescu family constantly talks about the toxic role fear plays in the life of the average person and preaches liberation from this scourge. And yet, few Romanians seem as tense as they are giving off the impression that they are walking 24/24 not through the “Garden of Eden”, but through areas stuffed with terrorists or mafiosi.
The paranoia that Calin & Cristela seem to swim in has two possible sources: either the pair suffer from paranoia, or they pretend to be penetrated by it.
From what I was able to understand by watching their performance, I would not be surprised if the first option is true version, even if the second one is true. Whatever thecase, the idea that they can get to Cotroceni (presidential palace) is too painful to completate.
Because for both scenarios, both Cristela and Călin behave in the same way.
- I wouldn’t be surprised if they were paranoid, given Călin Georgescu’s shadowy path. It’s a path somewhere at the crossroads of worlds that are themselves shadowy: former and active Securitate officers, or diplomats from Ceausescu’s Golden Age, the era in which diplomats could very well mean secret service rather than diplomats. Then there is the foreign part of Călin Georgescu’s life: he went to America and Great Britain during Ceausescu’s time, at an early age and in a context in which travelling to the West was “managed” by the Securitate. Subsequently, after the Revolution, they enjoyed an apparently sweet life, but also somewhat shrouded in fog, a life of “walks” through various ministries, agencies and NGOs in Bucharest, remaining at least unsolved the mystery of the constant support that Călin Georgescu seems to have benefited from in his career since then. Finally, it is also worth noting the period spent by Cristela & Călin abroad, which according to the press was spent in the shadows rather than lived in the light, as far as their life and careers there. So, even taking into account of all this, it wasn’t that surprising if these two people really were sick with paranoia. Always alert, quiet as a hare, would have been a natural reaction to an environment so fraught with potential pitfalls.
- Don’t be paranoid, but pretend you are – well, that wouldn’t be surprising either. Why? For example, on the grounds that Călin Georgescu’s meteoric rise in politics in recent month has revealed elements of extreme emotion: victimization, scripted, implied, threats, the temptation of blackmail. The more heated the spirits, the better for the growth potential of the one who (still) dreams of being a candidate for the presidency of Romania. In such an equation, paranoia does not become a variable, but is constant. And if you aren’t paranoid, then you have to fake it. The Georgescu couple, in terms of the elements that I have identified so far both in the way they speak and he way they make their public appearances, play this role wonderfully well (if, I repeat, it is only a role, and not more).
Day in day out, Cristela & Călin Georgescu look more and more like Elena & Nicolae Ceaușescu.
- Paranoid (at least they seem to be although in time maybe we will find out if they really are).
- With the “People” “in their mouths” they walk around all the time (especially him, of course) but when it comes to addressing the people, the Georgescus also resort to the kind of direction that the Ceausescu also adored. And when it comes to walking among the “People,” everything is controlled as if a closed regime – again, like the Hated pair did once upon a time.
A discussion a reporter from Hotnews recently had with Cristela Georgescu sticks in my mind.
In essence, the journalist was trying to clarify a legitimate question: whether she will run for president in case the Constitutional Court bans him. I leave here the link to that dialogue (it’s worth clicking).
The last sentence spoken by Călin Georgescu’s wife to the reporter was: ” I also recorded you”.
I insist on reproducing these words and the way Mrs. Georgescu behaved as they are emblematic and symptomatic of the universe of paranoia (simulated or authentic) in which the Georgescu family lives.
If you have the curiosity to click on the link above, you will notice that the journalist acted professionally: legitimately, and her approach was matter of fact and lacking gratuitous hostility.
Lady Georgescu really had no reason to feel offended, she had no reason to be on the alert, she had no reason to be aggressive by saying: “I recorded you too”.
But this is her level, it’s all the one who’s caught up in the “Cinderella” syndrome who dreams of being Romania’s First Lady can do.
As we approach the rerun of the presidential campaign, Călin and Cristela are revealing more and more of themselves to us.
And with each new revelation produced by Călin and Cristela, it is more and more difficult for me to get rid of the memories of reading ” The Good Soldier Švejk “, by Jaroslav Hasek. There is a stamp in that book: “Authority through stupidity”.
I didn’t think that, as an adult, I would end up in this world, not in fiction, but in reality, with flesh-and-blood versions of “Svejk”. These two individuals are also “good soldiers”, only not of the fictional Austro-Hungarian Empire, but of the authentic Russian Empire. They are not acting in the service of the emperor that Hasek mocks, but in the pay of an unimaginable dictator.
Romanian presidential candidate faces criminal prosecution on six counts
