Romania no longer behaves as a sovereign strategic actor but as a compliant institutional satellite.
The Mercosur vote confirms a troubling pattern: Romania has become exemplary in compliance, yet persistently inadequate when it comes to defending its own national interest.
When political disagreement is reframed as moral deviance, democratic debate becomes impossible.
President Nicușor Dan’s speech was not scandalous, not provocative, not offensive. It was something far worse: forgettable.
While Romania is obedient, Hungary fills the regional vacuum not because it is the most powerful state, but because it has the confidence to speak when others hesitate.
A return to roots in a time of confusion or just another political strategy?
