In 2002, for the first time in history, the municipality of Focsani, the county seat of Vrancea, was to surpass the record in terms of the stable population here, the official figures from the census exceeding 100,000 inhabitants.
The city still had some effervescence, as factories built during communism functioned and created jobs. We could not talk about foreign investments, because they did not exist then and are not today, but the situation was balanced and it seemed that things would evolve.
With the plunder of enterprises, the situation has changed radically.
In just one decade, from 2002 to 2012, the city of Focsani registered a depopulation of 28%, reaching from 103,219 inhabitants in 2002, to 73,868 inhabitants. Almost 30,000 inhabitants were lost, given that in Vrancea County the population decrease was 47,000 people.
It is practically the most dramatic decrease of population registered in Romania, taking into account that other cities have increased numerically. One explanation is that the city’s economic collapse has forced people to take the road abroad in search of a better life.
The local authorities blamed the difficult general living conditions in Romanian society, which is why Romanians went to countries such as Italy, Spain or Great Britain.
A new population census will take place next year and it is not excluded to see even more worrying figures, despite the snoring statements of the current mayor Cristi Misailă, who two and a half years ago said that Romanians do not leave the country, but on the contrary return in the homeland glad that the PSD government has increased salaries and are comparable to those in the EU.
“It is a false opinion of yours that the citizens of Focsani leave the country. I say with all conviction that there are many citizens who return to the country and are happy because the local and county public administration is concerned with creating much better living conditions and by governing the PSD the minimum wage has increased considerably, becoming comparable with the salaries from the countries where they worked, which makes life in Romania much more attractive “, said then the mayor Cristi Misailă.
As Focşani was once seen
In the interwar period, the situation of the Focsani fair was different, which in the 1930 census came out on the 5th place in Moldova after Iasi, Chernivtsi, Chisinau and Galati.
Nothing else could be believed about the first three, they being old capitals of Romanian historical regions, with numerous populations located within their borders, and we all know about Galaţi that it has always enjoyed a privileged position, being built on the most important river from the mainland, the Danube, where the interests of thousands of merchants from all over Europe met.
About the population in general, Ion Ionescu de la Brad said in 1869, in the prestigious work “Romanian Agriculture in Putna County”, the following: “The population is the most important thing in society, which it constitutes, and in the State, which gives power and magnification ”.
Later, the authors of the “Monograph of Putna County” noticed some negative aspects with effect on the geographical area of which Focşani is part: “Putna County, today partially Vrancea, does not exercise then, aspect seems valid even today, no attraction for the world from the outside, the increase in population recorded at that time was due to natural, biological growth, and in terms of demographic policy, it was thought appropriate to take action before it was too late. ”
Currently, as the statistics show, Focşani is demographic far behind cities such as Bacău, Botoşani, Suceava and Piatra Neamţ. At the national level, it ranks 30th – that is, among the county residences, the city exceeds, in terms of human resources, only about ten counterpart municipalities.
“For the current administration, regardless of the justifications, the fact that it has lost almost 2000 citizens of Focsani annually since the 2002 census cannot be a reason to rejoice, even if it is obvious that it could not in any way retain those eager for a live better, willing to find him anywhere else. What else can be done to change things? Enough, only to be wanted by those paid to find solutions to such problems “, is the opinion of the Vrancea historian Florin Dârdală.
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