Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu said on Saturday that the Union of the Romanian Principalities was not a symbolic gesture, but a national project built step by step, a public will that was expressed, defended and turned into political decision.

'Today, 24 January, we celebrate the Union of the Romanian Principalities, an achievement of the people and leaders of the time, accomplished through courage, organisation and political intelligence. The Union was not a symbolic gesture but a national project built step by step: a public will that was expressed, defended and turned into political decision. In the years 1857-1859, the road to Union also meant a battle for truth. There were pressures, attempts to distort the public will, rumours and campaigns meant to frighten and divide. It is no coincidence that in 1857 the elections for the Ad-hoc Divan in Moldavia ended up being annulled and repeated due to the falsification of electoral lists and repeated manipulation. Themes were spread such as: ‘The Union will bring chaos', ‘it is not legal and will be annulled', ‘it will not be recognised', ‘one side will dominate the other', ‘it is a plan of foreigners, not of Romanians'. (...) Despite these, Romanians chose discernment and the unionist leaders chose construction: to explain, to mobilise, to negotiate and to turn an aspiration into an accomplished fact,' Predoiu said in his message on the occasion of the Day of the Union of the Principalities.

He added that after the Union, concrete achievements followed that changed Romania: common institutions, the gradual unification of administration and legislation, the strengthening of the state's capacity to defend the public interest and the acceleration of modernisation.

'The Union created the framework for reforms, stability and development and Romania gained the strength to pursue its major objectives and to consolidate its place in Europe. In the current context of easy and rapid online communication, which can instantly reach millions of readers, a simple gesture becomes increasingly important and takes on the value of civic spirit and patriotism: before sharing information that ‘ignites' fear or hatred, we should, as far as possible, verify the seriousness of the source and, if necessary, reconfirm the information from other public sources. We should pass the information we receive through our own ‘filter' of thinking. In a democracy, criticism is a right and exercising it is necessary, but it is important that clear reason always guards this right against manipulation that seeks division and can weaken us all. We are gradually understanding more and more clearly how much real life is affected by what is ‘(de)constructed' in online communication environments,' he concluded. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Dana Piciu; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)