December as a Special Time

Motto: “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on”. John F. Kennedy

The history of each nation includes moments of triumph, celebration, despair and turning points. Romanians’ history begins 1900 years ago and is carved in the stone of Trajan’s Column in Rome, commemorating the Dacian Wars. A marvel of its time, the Column has survived almost intact, as a testimony to our Latin identity.

For Romanians, December has a special significance. It is a time of triumph because on 1 December 1918 the modern Romanian State has reached its natural borders, fulfilling the multi-secular dream of bringing together all historical provinces inhabited by Romanians.

1918 was a turning point in Europe: it brought the end of the First World War and the collapse of 4 empires, 12 new independent states were formed, while 15 states completed their national unity. Inspired by the principle of self-determination announced by US President Woodrow Wilson on 11 February 1918 (“National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. Self-determination is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative principle of action.”), on 27 March 1918 Bessarabia (part of medieval Romanian Principality of Moldova and annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812) proclaimed the union with the Kingdom of Romania. On 28 November 1918 Bukovina (a historic part of the Principality of Moldova and attached in 1774 to the Habsburg Empire) voted the union, too.

Then, on 1 December 1918 the Romanians from Transylvania, representing the absolute majority of the population in this province (Fényes Elek, a 19^th century Hungarian statistician, estimated in 1842 that in the population of Transylvania 62.3% were Romanians), also voted the union with Romania. On 14 December 1918, in front of the Transylvanian delegation that had presented the Act of Union to King Ferdinand I of Romania, Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu said: “We have been waiting for you for 1,000 years and you have come so that we will never be separated again.” On 15 December 1918 the representatives of the Transylvanian Saxons approved the act of union, and on 19 February 1919 Baron Joseph Fay, speaking in the Parliament in Bucharest on behalf of the Szekely people living in Transylvania, expressed their support for the union with the Kingdom of Romania. It was the accomplishment of The Great Union, and 1December is now the National Day of Romania.

A time of despair came on 30 December 1947, when King Michael was forced to abdicate, and for the next 42 years the country was included in the Communist bloc. Another turning point happened on 22 December 1989, when a general uprising broke down the Communist regime and the country returned to democracy. After the Revolution of December 1989, Romania had as a fundamental priority to integrate into the European and Euro-Atlantic structures. It joined the Council of Europe in October 1993, and NATO in March 2004. On 17 December 2004, at the European Council meeting in Brussels, Romania concluded its accession negotiations with the European Union, thus paving the way for EU membership on 1 January 2007.

Celebrating our National Day, we remember that the ideal of national unity was nurtured by the struggle of a long line of generations: from the union of the three Romanian Principalities achieved by Michael the Brave in 1600, to the generation of the 1848 Revolution – with Nicolae Bălcescu, Alexandru Iona Cuza and Avram Iancu (by the Law 223/2023, 2024 has been proclaimed “The Year Avram Iancu”) -, to the Union of Romanian Principalities on 24 January 1859, then to the declaration of independence by the Romanian Foreign Minister Mihail Kogălniceanu on 9 May 1877 (”We are independent, we are a self-sufficient nation!”) which marked the beginning of the War of Independence, until the First World War in which Romania participated with 800,000 soldiers on the Entente side and 335,706 of them paid the ultimate price (130,000 Romanian civilians also lost their lives), and culminating with the Great Union of 1 December 1918.

For the same ideal of reunification Romania participated in the Second World War, both in the Eastern and Western military campaigns. Official figures presented by the Romanian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1946 show that during WW2 the Romanian army lost 794,562 soldiers (killed, wounded or went missing), while 64,000 Romanian civilians have also died. 538,500 Romanian soldiers fought against the Axis, a contribution ranking Romania fourth, behind the USSR, USA and Great Britain in the victory against fascism. Other 5,205 Romanians died or were wounded during the December 1989 Revolution. Democratic Romania has been built on their sacrifice.

Starting with 1992, every four or five years, December is a time of politics in Romania, because of the parliamentary and presidential elections. In 2024, the elections for the Parliament are on 1 December, the second round of the presidential elections is on 8 December, and the installment of the newly elected President will take place on 22 December, the same day when 35 years ago the anti-Communist revolution triggered in Bucharest. History sometimes plays with numbers.

December has a particular significance equally for the international cooperation. On 10 December 1948 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on 14 December 1955 Romania became a member of the United Nations, and several important UN conventions have been adopted in the month of December: 10 December 1982 – the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea; 13 December 2006 – the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; 12 December 2015 – the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty whose goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels”. At the Council of Europe, the European Cultural Convention was adopted on 19 December 1954, with the purpose “to develop mutual understanding among the peoples of Europe and reciprocal appreciation of their cultural diversity”.

But December is also the time of celebrating Christmas, and few other nations preserve unaltered fascinating ancient traditions coming from the mists of time, as the Romanians have been doing for 19 centuries, since St. Andrew the Apostle came to the current territory of Romania and converted our ancestors to Christianity.

Professor Yuval Noah Harari (author of “Homo Deus: A Brief History Tomorrow”) argues that: “Promoting national interests requests both patriotism and global cooperation, and between the two concepts there is no contradiction. Nationalism is about loving your compatriots. And in the 21^st century, in order to protect the safety and the future of your compatriots, you must cooperate with foreigners. So, in the 21^st century, good nationalists must be also globalists. Globalism means a commitment to some global rules. Rules that don’t deny the uniqueness of each nation, but only regulate the relations between nations.”

Romania is the sixth largest member state in the EU, in terms of geographical size and population, the tenth in NATO, and a significant contributor to the North Atlantic Alliance collective security. It is a space of prosperity that inspires trust. Henry Kissinger once said: “No foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none“. His words express the same truth today as when they were spoken. With the multiplication and inter-connection of international challenges, Romania’s foreign policy configuration is based on the triad formed by its membership to EU and NATO and the strategic partnership with the United States of America, simultaneously with the promotion of regional and global stability and security, respect and support for international law, human rights and effective multilateralism. It is a foreign policy of national consensus, predictable, coherent, anchored in democratic values and ideas, because more powerful than weapons or money is the power of ideas.

Happy National Day to Romania and all Romanians, wherever they are!   

Strasbourg, 1 December 2024

                                                                                                                        Dr. Ion I. Jinga

Note: The opinions expressed in this article do not bind the official position of the author.