Senate President Tariceanu: Patriotism is not just festive or seasonal sentiment, it is equally national choice

December 1 is not just the day when the nation was accomplished by Romanians' unification in one state, December 1 is also the day when we should celebrate the representative democracy and pluralism, when it would be appropriate to recognize the central role of the democratic political parties in our contemporary history, a role as great as the one of the Army or the governments, Senate President Calin Popescu - Tariceanu declared on Wednesday.

"On this path we might better understand that patriotism is not just a seasonal and festive sentiment, but equally, a rational choice. Montesquieu wrote once that true patriotism means to love the laws of your country. Of course, if those laws deserve your affection. Where liberty dwells, there is my country, Benjamin Franklin also reinforced. It is therefore up to us, the members of Parliament, if we are willing to be inspired by the principles and values that fueled the Alba Iulia Resolution, to give the Romanians reasons to be true patriots and to turn Romania into a country of liberty for all its citizens. We are the ones who have the duty of consolidating the democratic regime, whose vision animated the Alba Iulia Assembly of December 1, 1918," Tariceanu underlined, in the solemn address in Parliament, dedicated to the Greater Union Centennial celebration.

The president of the higher Chamber of the Legislative added that, "just as the facts occurred", December 1, 1918 was not a government and military event, but rather an "eminently civic" one.

"If we are to take seriously what took place in Alba Iulia in 1918, we should not only celebrate a patriotic event, but also an authentic act of democracy, a manifesto of democracy, the text of Resolution, which for us could have the same civic meaning that the Declaration of Independence has for the American people, or the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen," the Senate president showed.

He revealed the importance of the day of December 1, an event which led to the formation of the national state of Romanians by the unification of all historical provinces.

"The day of December 1 is unanimously and rightly so, viewed as an event, the most important event, from a long series of episodes which led to the formation of the national state of Romanians, through the unification of all of the historical provinces where they had an overwhelming majority. It is right to celebrate on December 1 the Romanians' decision one century ago of living together as an indivisible nation. It is just as right to commemorate, on every December 1, the Romanian soldiers who, through their blood sacrifice, firstly gave birth to Romania as a sovereign and independent state and then made possible the achievement of the Greater Romania," Tariceanu said.

"The union with Romania was the first, but not the only measure decreed by the Alba Iulia Resolution. The Union was not affirmed at the time as a metaphysical achievement of a secular ideal, but rather an act of political lucidity, both democratical in thinking and radical in action. The Union was proclaimed as a historical reparation and as a society project. In the text of the Resolution, the Union was firstly associated with, and I quote "Accomplished achievement of a fully democratic regime in all realms of public life." Through the traits of this regime, the Alba Iulia delegates listed the unrestricted and unconditional freedom of expression and thought. They immediately added "common vote, direct, equal, secret, municipality based, in a proportionate manner for both genders." The nation that the participants of the Alba Iulia Assembly envisioned not only had an ethnic dimension, but also an indisputable civic component," Tariceanu specified. AGERPRES (RO - author: Sorin Penes editor: Andreea Rotaru EN - author: Catalin Cristian Trandafir, editor: Simona Iacob)

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