Romanian hard right says it wants to be part of new government By Reuters
Written by Luiza Ilie
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romania’s hardline Alliance for Uniting Romanian (AUR) party wants to be part of a coalition government, its leader said on Tuesday, as the nation looks to a presidential vote that will decide who will appoint the prime minister. .
The opposition and non-ethnic parties, including the AUR, received significant support in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, and despite not having a majority they won more than 30% of the seats in the legislature.
The decision of the Constitutional Court on Monday opened the way for the presidential election next Sunday which will pit right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu against Elena Lasconi. If he wins it will increase the chances of him becoming an ultranationalist prime minister.
A victory for Georgescu in the run-off would boost Romania’s pro-Western standing and undermine its support for neighboring Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. Romania is a member of NATO and the European Union.
The court ordered a recount of the first round of the presidential election amid concerns about interference in the electoral process, but ultimately upheld the result.
“As the second largest party in Romania … we have an obligation to come up with an honest opinion,” AUR leader George Simion commented to foreign media.
“I would like to have a coalition government. If the next president of Romania appoints me as prime minister or asks our party to propose the name of the prime minister, (then we will be).
“We will sit down and talk to all political forces in the Romanian parliament,” he said, speaking in English.
However, Simion denied that he will cooperate with the Social Democrats (PSD), which came out on top in Sunday’s vote.
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Georgescu’s unexpected first-round victory bolstered opposition support in Sunday’s parliamentary election. The AUR doubled its seats and two separate parties, one with obvious Russian sympathies, entered the Legislature.
Georgescu ran as an independent and did not support the party, but was once a member of the AUR before leaving after hailing the Romanian fascist leaders of the 1930s as national heroes.
A survey conducted by CURS on Dec. 1 in the polling stations showed that Georgescu will win 57.8% in return to Lasconi’s 42.2% among the people who said they will vote. The survey received 24,629 people after polling and had a margin of error of plus/minus 0.6%.
A fan of US President-elect Donald Trump, Simion said he would stop military aid to Ukraine. He is against Holocaust education and gay marriage, and wants to restore the lands Romania lost during the Second World War.
The AUR has gone from being an anti-vaccination party during the COVID-19 crisis to Romania’s main opposition force, appealing to migrant workers and young voters and building popular discontent among mainstream politicians.
Simion says he does not support Russia, calling President Vladimir Putin a war criminal, and supports Romania’s NATO and EU membership, although he criticizes what he calls a “greedy and corrupt bubble” at EU headquarters in Brussels. In contrast, Georgescu called Putin a true leader and a country.
Romanian authorities say the country has become a major target for hostile actors like Russia, and have accused video streaming platform TikTok of giving special treatment to the presidential candidate without naming Georgescu directly. Both Russia and TikTok deny any wrongdoing.
TikTok executives on Tuesday defended the platform’s conduct, telling a European Parliament committee that the company had taken steps to disrupt private networks.
“Back in September, we exposed a network of 22 accounts from Romania targeting the Romanian audience, since then we have disrupted seven others who are trying to return to the platform,” said Brie Pegum, Head of Product for TikTok Global. Authenticity and Transparency.
“On Friday of last week, we disrupted two more networks… in Romania targeting the Romanian audience with 12 accounts and 78 accounts respectively.”
