Calin Popescu-Tariceanu: France - our anchor in Europe and for that we will remain eternally grateful

The Senate's Speaker Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, wishes to France on its National Day "Many Happy Returns!", underlining the influence "sister France" has had over the history of Romania.

"I do not think there are many countries in the world which have had a greater influence on our history than sister France. And not yesterday, but since Jean Nevers, the son of the duke of Bourgogne, who fought at Nicopole against Turks, shoulder to shoulder with Mircea the Old, more than six centuries ago. There were times when French was the language of the high class in Romania, the language of diplomacy, and when our young people "in Paris they learned," as the great Eminescu wrote. Also the big France and its revolution, under the watchword 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité,' inspired the Romanian 1848 revolutioners and encouraged them to fight for unity and independence after in 1846 people such as Kogalniceanu, Balcescu, Ghica or C.A. Rosetti founded, in the Latin Quarter, the Romanian Students' Society in Paris, whose honorary president was poet Alphonse de Lamartine," writes Tariceanu on Sunday in a post on his Facebook page.

He reminds that "France essentially supported the union of Moldavia with the Wallachia", being our "anchor" in Europe.

"France essentially supported Moldavia's union with Wallachia. We later gained our independence and the status of the kingdom also thanks to France and Napoleon the Third, and our first king, Carol I, was more French than German. France was our anchor in Europe, and for that we will remain eternally grateful to it, being, as we know, the first country that showed solidarity with the Romanians after the anti-communist revolution of December 1989. Because, as the General de Gaulle said, "the cement of the relations between Romania and France is the Latinity of the two countries", the ALDE president mentioned in his post.

"It is a privilege and an honor, therefore, for me and my colleagues from the ALDE to wish today France a warm, sincere and friendly "Many Happy Returns!", Calin Popescu-Tariceanu wrote.