Ion ȘTEFANOVICI: “Romania – Between Truth, Reform and Destiny”

Ion ȘTEFANOVICI, President of CAPDR

The Identity Crisis of the Romanian State

The time has come to state, without circumvention, a fundamental truth: Romania is in a state of profound imbalance. This is a crisis that can no longer be masked by position rotations, image strategies, or empty slogans. It is a crisis of institutional identity, administrative coherence, political representation, and geopolitical positioning.

This state is no accident. It is the result of a slow but constant accumulation of hesitations, complicities, and lack of vision. It is the result of a state model built on artificial overlaps, functional compromises, and the absence of genuine reform.

Today, Romania no longer needs adjustments. It needs a reset.

Administrative-Territorial Reform

We cannot build a functional state with over 3,200 administrative-territorial units, many of which have no institutional or economic capacity whatsoever. These are stains on the map of a Romania that no longer exists. We must have the courage to redraw the real Romania: to regionalize, to professionalize local administration, and to merge where survival is maintained solely through political subsidies. This is not a technocratic measure. It is a measure of national survival.

Reform of the Political Class

The current political system is worn out. Parties are, for the most part, machines for resource redistribution and client maintenance. Instead of ideological competition, we have electoral simulacra. Instead of leaders, we have interest-bearers. It is time for the entire political class to undergo a public audit—not just financial, but one of legitimacy and utility. A clear line must be drawn between those who still serve the public interest and those who merely pretend to do so.

Economic Transition: Abandoned Industrialization

The transition from a socialist economic system to a capitalist one was not, in Romania, a development strategy, but a surrender of economic sovereignty. Romanian industry, one of the most diversified in Eastern Europe, was dismantled at a brutal pace, with no reconversion plan and no vision. Under slogans such as “privatization,” “restructuring,” or “free market,” hundreds of plants, factories, and industrial complexes were liquidated or sold off. Millions of people were left without alternatives. Today, the consequences are clear: entire regions abandoned, economic dependency, labor force exodus. This transition did not create a genuine middle class, but a rentier elite that took over national assets along with foreign interests.

The Alienation of National Resources

Romania’s natural resources—oil, gas, energy, wood, water—have been systematically alienated. We are not talking only about privatizations. We are talking about the relinquishment of strategic control over what defines us as a sovereign state. Petrom, Hidroelectrica, energy distribution networks, ports, forestry companies—all have come, in whole or in part, under foreign control or have been disconnected from the national interest. Instead of policies to protect these resources, we accepted to become tenants in our own country. In the meantime, Romania has been transformed into a consumer state, devoid of its own strategic levers. This cannot continue.

Agricultural Crisis and the Loss of Food Sovereignty

Moreover, agricultural lands have also been sold off, to extents that are hard to quantify precisely. It is difficult today to speak of a genuine agricultural policy in Romania. Agro-food markets selling Romanian products represent an insignificant percentage of national retail networks in the sector. In the absence of coherent policies to protect local producers and stimulate internal agri-food chains, Romania has become vulnerable from a food perspective.

The Great Island of Brăila has also been leased under unnatural and incomprehensible conditions from the perspective of Romania’s national interest. This unique agricultural area should have been a symbol of food sovereignty, a model of Romanian efficiency and applied agricultural research. Instead, it has become an example of national interest abandonment. Romania needs a national agricultural strategy aimed at restoring internal production capacity, protecting agricultural lands, supporting local farmers, and stimulating the consumption of Romanian products through dedicated fiscal and commercial policies.

What Is to Be Done?

Adoption of a National Strategic Resources Law—to prohibit the complete alienation of control over energy, water, gas, and agricultural lands. Creation of a National Sovereign Investment Fund—to profitably manage the remaining state-owned assets and reinvest in strategic industries. Profound reform of local public administration—through merging, regionalization, professionalization, and digitalization.

Selective Reindustrialization—through public investments and state partnerships—where we have internal potential: processed agriculture, pharma, electrical equipment, construction materials. Rethinking geopolitical partnerships—not from an ideological perspective, but a strategic one: Romania must be an actor, not an annex. It must have a voice, not just a position. An intergenerational reconstruction pact—in which each generation assumes its share of responsibility: those who led, the duty to correct; those who come, the duty to build.

Conclusion

Romania does not need promises. It needs clarity, courage, and character. We cannot build a future on the unacknowledged ruins of the past. We cannot move forward without looking into the eyes of the responsibility for all the decisions made over the past 30 years. It is time for a generation to say: enough with improvisation. Enough with the simulacrum. It is time for real reconstruction.

Romania needs truth, not convenient silences. And the truth begins today.