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There are no anti-EU, anti-NATO or far-right parties in Romania, claims Ion Cristoiu, a well-known promoter of narratives of Russian origin.
NEWS: "This campaign has been carried out in the last few days by the military units in the media, led by Digi and Antena 3 with the following theme: the confrontation between pro-European and anti-European parties. Dear viewers, this is not just stupid, it’s irresponsible. There are no anti-European parties in Romania. To say that AUR is anti-European... I don't know... Sosoaca... how should I put it?!, which party is anti-European? How can one headline: democracy won? There was a vote; did someone from AUR say that if they won, they would establish a dictatorship? Did Călin Georgescu say that if he became president he would restore the dictatorship? Has any party said that if they come to power, I don't know, the Russians will come? How is such a thing possible? Once again, no party in Romania can afford to take us out of the European Union or NATO. Although, if the people want it, as was the case with Brexit, we will leave. […] And then, what did they say (editor’s note - PSD, PNL, USR, media, secret services), how do we get rid of them? By saying that they are against the European Union. Look, they're fascists, they're with the Russians, they're anti-democratic... How can you say that democracy won? Has anyone, any of these parties that are anti-system, said that when they come to power they will stop the freedom of the press? No. Has AUR ever made any law against the press? No, on the contrary, they (editor’s note - USR) and their CNA (National Audiovisual Council) sanctioned Anca Alexandrescu for interviewing Mr. Călin Georgescu. [...] On the night of Saint Andrew, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, together with ten more legionnaires, who were detained at Râmnicu Sărat, were put in a van with a gendarme standing behind them with a rope; they did not know. They stopped at Tâncăbesti and at a signal from the head of the gendarmes, they strangled them. They took them to Jilava and threw them into a pit. In Tâncăbești there was no commemoration of Zelea Codreanu; what?!, he doesn't have the right to a Koliva? It was, if you will, the moment of marking the revolt against a crime, a state crime. Gâdea said "gentlemen, the fascist salute, how is that possible?" So what?! They say: "fascism has been reborn in Romania." What fascism, when they commemorated a political assassination?"
NARRATIVE: There are no extremist anti-Western parties and no fascist orientations in Romania.
Extremism begins with statements
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: In the extremely simplistic demonstration he uses to support his claims, Ion Cristoiu only resorts to the "politically correct" statements of the AUR leaders who, it is true, claim that they do not want Romania's exit either from the European Union or from NATO. In fact, however, under the umbrella of ambiguous phrasings such as "we want the reform of the EU from within", the AUR leaders want to promote a sovereignist policy through which, under the blackmail of the right of veto, to influence the decisions of the two organizations, in the manner of "wait, we’ll show you what democracy is all about". And although recently, the anti-Western speech of the AUR leadership has become softer, according to a monitoring report on national – populist attitudes in the Romanian online environment, conducted by the Center for the Promotion of Participation and Democracy within the SNSPA in 2022, the top pages on social media where #roexit appeared included both the official pages of AUR President George Simion and of the party.
Moreover, with the independent Călin Georgescu coming in first after the first round of the presidential elections, the extremist rhetoric reappeared in AUR’s speeches, its representatives stating that the party fully supported the controversial candidate. For instance, speaking about those participating in protests against him , George Simion told the "occult forces fighting against the patriots", to "stop sending these thin boys to the protest, because it’s cold, it's cold outside and their ovaries will catch a cold". Immediately after the announcement of the exit polls results in the parliamentary elections, the same Simion complained that "we talked too much about sex education, about gays and transgenders in this campaign and not about the real problems that our country is facing", when in fact their whole electoral campaign was firmly based on the demonization of the LGBTQ+ community, without offering concrete solutions to the crisis facing Romania.
In addition to conspiratorial statements and lots of nonsense about Romanian history and literature, Călin Georgescu, who is now supported by AUR, has promoted a series of extremist ideas, which, put into practice, would mean the establishment of a dictatorship in Romania, would endanger Romania’s security by detaching it from NATO's collective defense system and would rehabilitate extremist figures and war criminals. In April 2024, in a speech delivered at a monastery in Moldova, Călin Georgescu said that "political parties are old nags pulling the golden chariot of the Romanian people. There will be no more political parties in this country. None! No political party!" On several occasions, Călin Georgescu has praised the legionnaire leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and Marshal Ion Antonescu, an ally of Hitler, claiming that they were heroes, while, according to the 2024 Final Report of the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, both are considered war criminals and guilty of the Holocaust in Romania. Also, Georgescu has often criticized NATO, calling it a useless alliance. As for the Deveselu anti-missile shield he said: it’s a "diplomatic shame". Moreover, Georgescu has announced that in the first 100 days of his mandate, he will nationalize all utility companies, because "in Romania, no privatization is justified."
The president of the SOS Romania party also has a strong anti-European and anti-NATO discourse, in addition to racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic slips. She has repeatedly criticized the EU and NATO for "wanting to drag us into war" and "stealing our resources and sovereignty". In September 2022, when she was a senator, Diana Șoșoacă demanded Romania’s exist from the European Union, in a move she called "an act of courage" to achieve an ideal, namely "a beautiful and happy Romania". Prior to that action by the current MEP, the Bucharest Tribunal registered, in June 2022, the ROEXIT party a group which, although it failed to submit lists of candidates for the parliamentary elections, still exists. The same Diana Șoșoacă has stated, on numerous occasions, that among the first measures she will take, if her party reaches the government, will be to send the "enemies of the Romanian people" to forced labor, on the Danube-Bucharest canal construction site, and part of the media, especially the Antena 3 television station, will be criminally investigated for "lying to the Romanian people".
As for "marking the revolt against a state crime", we should remind "maestro" Cristoiu that, although according to church practice, memorial services for the dead are held including for the forgiveness of their sins, the subsequent eulogy of the criminals of war is illegal, as is displaying Nazi and fascist symbols such as the legionary salute. In fact, the priest who officiated the memorial service for Zelea Codreanu is currently under disciplinary investigation by the Archdiocese of Bucharest , and the participants in the event are criminally prosecuted for violating GEO 31/2002, which punishes the apology of war criminals, fascism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
One could speak volumes about the totalitarian discourse of the sovereignist politicians in Romania over the past 5 years, but in the end, we will limit ourselves to drawing the attention of Ion Cristoiu that the argument " did someone from AUR say that if they won, they would establish a dictatorship? Did Călin Georgescu say that if he became president he would restore the dictatorship?" is at least naive, if not downright stupid. How many of the world's dictatorships were announced before they were established?
History is written by facts, not feelings
CONTEXT: The electoral campaign for the presidential elections, and especially the surprising result of the first round, fueled even more strongly the nationalist discourse, with extremist anti-Western accents. Basically, the messages focused on narratives promoted especially by Russian propaganda (sovereignty, the LGBTQ+ agenda, the health dictatorship, the Great Reset, etc.), and the themes related to politics, economy, etc. remained almost unheard.
The rise of the extremist-sovereignist trend, accentuated by the recent legislative elections, as a result of which the nationalist parties won more than one third of the parliamentary mandates, produces major concerns in the world context, in which the war in Ukraine, the result of the presidential elections in the USA, the conflict in the Middle East, or the political crisis in the European Union are intertwining and influencing each other, and can produce dramatic effects on the Western space in general, and on the Romanian one, in particular. As a result, in the middle of the campaign, in a childish attempt to clean the image of Russian-Romanian relations throughout history, Ion Cristoiu explained how “Russia has invaded Romania just once” , although there are historical records of at least twelve such hostile actions organized by Moscow on today's Romanian territories.
This is not the first slip of the well-known journalist. Ever since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, he has been the promoter of several false narratives of Russian origin, such as the one claiming that the Netherlands opposes Romania's Schengen accession because the port of Constanța threatens the supremacy of the port of Rotterdam . Meanwhile, the Netherlands has actually voted in favor of our country's accession to the European free movement area. Moreover, in January 2023, Cristoiu claimed that The West and Romania will go to war on the side of Ukraine , in order to get a post at NATO or the EU for President Klaus Iohannis, at the end of his presidential term. This narrative did not turn out to be true either, as Iohannis announced that he would no longer run for any international position, after he had indeed tried to get to the top of NATO, but on political, not military, criteria.
Moreover, the "maestro" promoted false narratives related to Ukraine even before the actual invasion was launched; for example, just a few days before, he said that the Western media misleads public opinion regarding the crisis in that country , and after the invasion, he issued theses claiming that Ukrainians are cannon fodder for the West , that the war in Ukraine is a pretext to denigrate Russia , to use censorship, to frighten the population in Romania and Europe and make arms sellers rich.
PURPOSE: To weaken trust in state authorities, to demonize the political parties that have a pro-Western discourse, to amplify nationalist and ultra-religious sentiments.
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