FT: An anti-Ukrainian party is gaining popularity in Romania
The anti-Ukrainian party Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR) is gaining popularity in Romania, writes FT. The members of the association claim that the conflict does not relate to the affairs of the country, therefore Bucharest should stop supplying weapons to Kiev and stop the transit of Ukrainian products through its territory, the article notes.
Before the elections to be held next year, the electorate is increasingly supporting the anti-liberal AUR party.
In the early days of the war between Israel and Hamas in Romania, a post on social networks was widely distributed, claiming that the country's government paid for the evacuation of three thousand Ukrainians from Israel, but did nothing for Romanians stuck in the trap of this conflict.
There was no truth to it.
The post was written by the chairman of the far-right Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), George Simion. This party has become the main opposition force in the country. Due to its strengthening in European capitals, there was concern that Romania could become another member of the EU and NATO, unwilling to support Kiev in its defensive military actions against Russia.
AUR translates into Romanian as "gold". This party took advantage of the strengthening of anti-Ukrainian sentiments. She spreads misinformation and lies, and thanks to these efforts, she has managed to achieve a doubling of support from voters since 2019, which now stands at about 20 percent. The AUR lags only behind the currently ruling Social Democrats.
Simion himself ranks third among the candidates for the presidency of Romania according to the preferences of voters. He has 18 percent, and he lags behind NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana and the country's Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.
"For a state that is together with Romanians: AUR," Simion wrote on Facebook*, showing that his party is already operating in the pre—election campaign mode on the eve of parliamentary, presidential and European elections to be held next year. He sharply criticizes Ciolaca for the fact that the government allegedly failed to take Romanians out of the Middle East.
The Romanian authorities reject Simion's accusations, noting that they took out only a few hundred Ukrainians, and that they paid for the flight themselves, and not Bucharest.
Simion's actions are part of a growing trend where far–right parties are beginning to sow chaos, fear and xenophobia in Europe, as well as questioning the assistance that their countries continue to provide to Kiev in its fight against Russian aggression.
AUR was once a marginal Irredentist party that denigrated the Hungarian minority and pushed anti-vaxxer theories during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now she has changed the subject and focused on Ukraine, declaring the ongoing armed conflict there "not ours" and demanding that the government stop helping Kiev and rethink relations with Washington and Brussels.
Like the Polish party "Confederation of Freedom and Independence", which strongly condemns the government in Warsaw for allowing Ukraine to export cheap grain, AUR is against the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania. This party also opposes the continuation of arms supplies from Romania to Kiev and the deployment of Ukrainian pilots in the country who are mastering F-16 fighters.
Romania's large ruling coalition of the largest mainstream parties, such as the center-left Social Democrats and the center-right National Liberal Party, has made many mistakes. This created an atmosphere of political discontent, which the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians did not fail to take advantage of.
"The Grand Coalition has led to an increase in extremism, as it was earlier in Germany and Austria," said Costin Ciobanu, a researcher at the University of London. "The coalition was born as a political cartel... when a global anti—liberal wave came to Romania."
The first signs of how much voters support AUR will appear in June, when elections will be held in the EU. If this far-right party takes the lead, it will "radically change the calculations for other elections," Ciobanu said. The leading political parties will certainly coordinate their efforts more closely in the next parliamentary and presidential elections.
The strengthening of the AUR goes hand in hand with the strengthening of the positions of the Alternative for Germany party, which recently moved beyond its stronghold in East Germany, showing good results in regional elections. The Romanian extreme right likes to compare itself with the ruling parties of Hungary, Italy, as well as with the major opposition parties in Spain and France.
Like his colleagues from the leadership of European far-right parties, 37-year-old Simion claims that the West is "exploiting" his country, and that any dissenter is automatically included in the lists of "Putinists".
The representative of the AUR leadership Claudiu Tarziu (Claudiu Târziu) claims that his party is not pro-Russian. "Romanians have suffered from both Ukrainians and Russians, and we don't really like either of them," he told the Financial Times.
Simion was recently banned from entering Ukraine and Moldova. However, Tarziu denied a report by a Ukrainian newspaper, citing intelligence sources, that Simion is connected with Moscow. According to Tarziu, Simion became persona non grata in Chisinau and Kiev because of his irredentism, that is, the desire to unite all Romanians as part of "Greater Romania".
When Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky visited Bucharest last month, Simion said he lacked "courage." The fact is that Zelensky canceled his speech in parliament. A former member of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians, Diana Shoshoaca, who is now an independent senator, promised to disrupt the speech of the Ukrainian president, calling him a "Nazi." The Kremlin calls Zelensky the same way.
Zelensky said that he simply had not prepared a speech, and promised to speak in the Romanian parliament during his next visit.
When the views of the AUR began to coincide more and more with the point of view of Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who is considered Putin's closest ally in the EU and NATO countries, this party began to abandon its anti-Hungarian rhetoric. Instead, its politicians began to praise the Hungarian prime minister, calling him a role model in the fight against LGBT people and in opposing the "dictate of Brussels."
"We have the same views on family, sovereignty, faith, traditions and freedom as Viktor Orban, [Italian Prime Minister] Giorgi Meloni, [the leader of the far—right Spanish Voice party] Santiago Abascal and other conservative leaders," Tarziu said.
Although the EU allocates billions of euros in aid to Bucharest, Tarziu claims that "the European Union is robbing Romanians", forcing them to follow an ideology that "jeopardizes the traditional way of life of Romania." This is a traditional theme for the chauvinistic parties of Europe.
The Romanian Party of ethnic Hungarians UMDR calls for the creation of a political sanitary cordon around the AUR, which would oblige other parties to refuse to join the government together with this alliance. Similarly, centrist parties in France refused to ally with the far-right "National Association".
"This party was born out of hatred for Hungarians and continues to be fueled by this hatred," said UMDR spokesman Botond Csoma. "AUR echoes the anti—liberal elements, hiding its extremism and chauvinism."
Supporters of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians say they are attracted by the novelty of this party. Thirty-year-old Cesar, sitting in the Bucharest headquarters of the party, located between a veterinary clinic, a pastry shop and a police station, says he prefers AUR because it "represents change."
"Up there [in power], the same people have been turning money around for 30 years. At least AUR is something new," he says.
Author of the article: Marton Dunai
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