Laurenţiu Vlad (coord.), „Percepţii ale „Europei” și europenităţii în spaţiul public românesc al secolelor XVIII-XXI (istorii, imagini, idei)”, Iași, Institutul European, 2024, 399 p.

Abstract

In December 2024, I received an invitation to read and review a book volume that deals with an important, often overlooked topic in Romanian literature. This review will focus on the collective volume titled “Perceptions of “Europe” and Europeanness in the Romanian Public Space of the 18th – 21th Centuries”, which was published in the same year under the coordination of Laurențiu Vlad. This review comes at a time of great tension for Romanian society for two reasons. Firstly, because the first round of the 2024 presidential elections was won by Călin Georgescu, an ultra-nationalist independent candidate, critic and opposer of the EU and NATO. Shortly after the results were announced, the Constitutional Court annulled the first round of elections based on reports from Romanian intelligence agencies suggesting Russian interference in the electoral process. The second reason is the 2025 re-run elections, where the final round sets the stage for a confrontation between an openly pro-EU candidate and another who views Romania-EU relations through a sovereign and Eurorealist lens.