Alliance for the Centenary
The Alliance for the Centenary, a coalition set up in order to organize a number of cultural, commemorative and civic engagement events devoted to the 1918 Union was launched in Bucharest.
Mihai Pelin, 21.08.2017, 12:52
On January 24, 1859, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the elected ruler of Moldavia just one week earlier, was also voted by the Electoral Assembly in Bucharest as sovereign of Wallachia, and, as a result, he became the head of the united Romanian Principalities. Cuza’s rule, between 1859 and 1866, with the radical reforms it ushered in, laid the foundations of modern Romania.
In 1918, when several provinces with mostly Romanian population previously controlled by neighbouring empires joined the Kingdom of Romania, the establishment of the Romanian nation state was completed. So, in 2018 we celebrate 100 years since the Great Union, which is why the Alliance for the Centenary was launched at the Parliament Palace in Bucharest. Roughly 100 civic organisations from Romania, the Republic of Moldova and the diaspora make up this Alliance, whose goal is to organise commemorative events devoted to the Great Union throughout 2018. As the president of “Actiunea 2012” Unionist Platform, George Simion puts it, next year’s celebration could not be complete without Bessarabia.
George Simion: “We are planning a symbolic event for August 2018. It will be a one-month long march from the 1918 Union capital city, Alba Iulia, to Chisinau, which we hope will be the capital of the 2018 Union.”
In turn, the Social Democrat Senator Titus Corlatean, attending the official launch at the Parliament Palace, believes the ideal of national unity is legitimate, but says international support is necessary for this Romanian project.
Titus Corlatean: “The national unity ideal is very legitimate and an intrinsic element of our existence. It cannot be denied or negotiated. We can see no reason why we should be denied something that other nations have been granted, for instance the German union after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But we need to be aware that not everybody, including some of our international partners, would be pleased to see a strong Romania.”
The organisations affiliated to the Alliance for the Centenary promised to help each other see through their unionist projects, as well as cultural, social and identity-related activities. The latter include several information campaigns in villages in the Republic of Moldova, lobby activities in Brussels and Washington and the set up of a Union endowment fund.
