Academy's Ioan-Aurel Pop: National idea could help us, if right one, to build Europe

In the minds of today's young people there is a frightened and frail national idea, because some mistake the national idea with nationalism, with chauvinism, but the national idea could help us, if it is the right one, to build Europe, said President of the Romanian Academy, Ioan-Aurel Pop, who is also the rector of the Babes-Bolyai University (UBB), in a speech given to several hundred students at Cluj, at a conference dedicated to the events of 1918, titled "The Greater Union in the Souls of Romanians", organized by the Cluj Students League and the Edictum Dei Association. 

"I believe that in the minds of today's young people there is a frightened and frail national idea, because some mistake the national idea with nationalism and mistake nationalism with chauvinism and mistake nationalism with xenophobia, or that is a huge mistake. All peoples have the right to live under the sun. That they cannot live perfectly and that there are and have always been problems between neighbors, this is another story, but the national idea could help us, if it is the right, clean and beautiful one, to build Europe", said the rector of the UBB. 

Asked if Romanians today still have a national ideal, the President of the Romanian Academy answered that he personally does not see another alternative. 

"What would be the alternative? Please demonstrate that the international ideal of globalization is working. Show me that the British have changed their mind and given up Brexit, tell me that the Nationalist Party of the Netherlands that did not want to vote for the European Constitution has been dismantled, show me that Le Pen's party in France no longer exists, that Poland and Hungary have changed their minds and that they are no longer promoting certain types of laws moving them away from the EU. And if you prove to me that the European Union is a palpable reality which we can see during our lifetime, then I could understand those young people who replace the national ideal with the international ideal, not to say internationalist," said Ioan-Aurel Pop. 

"The war in Troy took place in the name of the love of Helen of Troy and Paris. Did anyone ask for the dissolution of love, because in the name of love wars were waged? But how many wars were waged in the name of liberty, how many wars were waged in the name of faith, how many wars took place in the name of family, the War of the Two Roses, the York family were battling with the Lancaster family, and how many wars were waged in the name of democracy. Stalin, when killing people, was killing them in the name of democracy. So if we want things to be alright, it does not mean that we have to destroy family, faith, church, democracy, love, because conflicts can start from anything. We have to watch for peace, and it is currently accomplished mainly through nations, which as you see, each defends its your own interests," the president of the Romanian Academy further communicated. 

He specified that the nations, understood as a coagulation of group energies, if they respect each other's liberties and rights, are not a hindrance to the construction of Europe.