Romanian political scientist Platon writes about the annulation of his country’s presidentian elections.
Romanian political scientist Platon writes about the annulation of his country’s presidentian elections.
By Florin Platon, Political scientist and the founder of DieM 25 Romania
“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
George Orwell – 1984
The Romanian constitutional court annulled the country’s presidential election on December 6, after Călin Georgescu’s win that “shocked” many due to “declassified intelligence reports” by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis alleging a Russian interference in the elections. Now the Romanian government will establish a new timeline for a new presidential election.
Florin Platon, political scientist from Romania and the founder of DieM 25 Romania wrote an article for Turkish newspaper Aydınlık Europe.
We present Florin Platon’s illuminative article on the elections and political confrontation in Romania. Intermediate headlines are added by us.
The fall of Romanian democracy
On 24th November, Romania had Presidential elections. The two candidates that emerged from the first round, are iconic for what is happening now in the global geopolitical tectonic moves – the polarization and clash between the old and the new, between the Globalist Neoliberalism and the National Interest based state, the Sovereignists.
An East European Javier Milei
Calin Georgescu and Elena Lasconi, the two candidates of the first round, represent these two clashing worlds. Elena Lasconi is an East European Javier Milei, leader of the neoliberal extreme right party – “Save Romania Union”, aimed for further dismantling of the social state, moving assets from public ownership to private, and open support for escalating the war in Ukraine. There is barely any speech of her in which not to hear about Russia as enemy and menace to very existence of Romania, and support for further war in Ukraine.
The other candidate, Calin Georgescu is an independent, promoting sovereignism both in economy and foreign policy. With a speech full of mysticism, appeals to God and history, nobody ever expected him to get in the second round. Also his declarations of sympathy toward controversial historic figures, like leaders of the “Legionary Movement”, assimilated to fascist movements, brought him many accusations and legal charges of fascism. On the other hand he is against the war in Ukraine, and is for seeking peace and stability through diplomacy.
Unprecedented censorship
But, just as Romanian citizens abroad already started to vote, the Constitutional Court simply canceled the entire elections campaign, resetting it for an unspecified date yet, and erased all the votes. This is just the last attack in a long line of abuses against the electoral democratic process in these elections.
Even before presidential campaign started, two candidates have been prevented to participate, by a decision of the same Constitutional Court, on the accusations that are against NATO and EU, and friends of Russia. This is an unprecedented censorship, nothing short of the pre-1990 Ceausescu dictatorship, when being friend of the West or against official allies, was a political condemnation.
Sovereignists in rise
The first round also brought the shock that the candidate of the biggest party in Romania – the Social-Democrats (PSD) – also incumbent Prime-Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, failed to pass the first round. That was a negative record first time for the Social-Democrats since 1990. This compelled them to push for recounting the votes, another first time in the Romanian modern democracy. But the result was but a comedy, and to add insult to injury – they got even less votes, adding accusations of stealing votes, which by now is a common thing in the Romanian elections. Ciolacu resigned from the leadership of the party, just to change his mind and return.
A week later after Presidential elections, on 1st of December there’s been Parliamentary elections, and Social-Democrats scored again a negative record, second worst score ever, even though they managed to get the most places in Parliament. Same happened for the Liberal Party, the usual contester for power on the Right. All these while the sovereignist parties took record scores, with three of them entering Parliament.
Mistrust in the old politics of Neoliberal Globalism
Romanian elections are mirroring the elections in US, even the candidates are positioning after them, with Calin Georgescu being a supporter of Donald Trump politics. The model is also comparable to the classic duo from French elections, Macron – Le Pen, and other examples from all over Europe that show a growing mistrust in the old politics of Neoliberal Globalism, and a shift towards Sovereignist movements.
But what is more of attention for Romania is the reaction of the old parties, that faced with this new popular wave of support for an independent Sovereignist candidate, forgot all the differences between them and joined forces together, effectively splitting the political scene in two – the Old Politics, just rejected by voters and the Anti-Establishment/Anti-System Parties, that are contesting all the fails of the old parties. All till now, main parties were both fighting among them and making alliances the very second after, with Liberals moving from calling the Social-Democrats “the Red Plague”, and the most corrupted party, to make government together in the next second. All this duplicity eroded the trust in these parties, to which it adds the glooming threat of involving Romania in the war in Ukraine, and a failing economy that by now is working on debt just to pay salaries and pensions.
This “Holly Alliance” erased all political differences, and started to attack the independent candidate, Calin Georgescu, with all the media they control and the huge party resources, paid from state budget – a David against Goliath. Reminding of a slogan from citizens protest, if there’s been any doubt, now they made it a certainty: “All Parties are the same Misery!”
To make matters worse, this alliance of the old parties brought in the electoral game, also the secret services. In a desperate move, after 4 days after elections, when all polls were showing Calin Georgescu as the potential winner, the present president, from Liberal National Party, summoned the security services who suddenly discovered and painted the independent candidate as “enemy of the state”. These security services, have the worst reputation of all institutions in Romania, actively involving in internal politics, legal abuses, blackmail and corruption.
A military outpost of the West
All these abuses are making it clear for Romanians that war in Ukraine and the involvement of Romania in this war is not a matter to be left to their decision. By now, the war in Ukraine costs the Western perpetrators simply too much to be a matter left vulnerable to any democratic popular decision. And if we look in history, war has never been subjected to any popular scrutiny, but always the choice of a few, with the life costs of the others. Fascism is no longer a matter of the past, but a present we are living right now!
At this moment Romania has been turned into a military outpost of the West, with military troops and equipment being brought in constantly military exercises and military planes daily on the sky of the cities, like the 1944 gathering of troops before the Normandy Landing. For a Western society that is falling apart with the rise of its former colonies and the free world, war is the only way they know to keep control of its people and of their collapsing world.