After the event, politics is always easy to explain. A snippet of super-largeism appeared on the streets when it blossomed in newspapers after the anti-communist revolution in Romania in 1989. Called Greater Romania (Greater Romania) It quickly inspired a party with the same provocative name and revivalist views.
Paper and parties are both the return of the 1930s. Year after year, lurking on the edge. Romania has been moving into the mainstream. In the early 2000s, it joined the EU and NATO, a victory for communism after its hardships under communism.
However, now, what is shocking is Greater RomaniaPolishing with smooth Trump veneer is the dominant force in the country. George Simion is a tough-infused politician who is the leader in Sunday's second round of presidential elections. Regardless of the outcome, many EU countries that struggle to face populism must learn from Romania: this is a case book study to how not to respond.
If Simion was a football hooligan, the victory would mark Romania's biggest turmoil since 1989. Investors are shocked - NATO and EU officials are also worried that Romania may join Hungary as a rogue member. No one should be surprised.
Of course, this populist surge of midwives is willing and familiar, which leads to the simulation winning 41% of the vote in the first round. It is obvious that Moscow orchestrated a cyber campaign to amplify the right information. Stirring election troubles through robots is a dilapidated road in the Kremlin - very cheap.
Then there is the ancient communist network, which is said to have funded the Alliance of Romanians (AUR) and the Alliance of Travelers in Simion. The former Socratic people in Bucharest flourished after 1989 in the echoes of the KGB theft. Their heirs and alliances will feel a wealth of choices in a simulated state.
But because of these unhealthy effects, the real culprit of the rise of rights is institutional parties that alternate in a unified and corrupt manner over 35 years of power. A new generation of journalists and prosecutors highlighted the scandal after the scandal, especially under the leadership of the Social Democratic Party. watch collectivein health services and crying is an Oscar-nominated corruption reveal.
It happens that the outgoing coalition government may be the cleanest ever Romania has ever seen, but it is too late to eliminate the prevalent discomfort with the status quo. (This also has no hope of conveying its message.)
Romanian institutions failed to share the fruits of globalization while being too complacent about the threats on the right. Simion established his anti-Vaxxer brand during the pandemic, taking advantage of the communist era suspicion of babysitter states. Since his AUR party entered frontline politics in 2020, its nationalism has often been understated if not mainstream.
Proves something stupid. When centrist agencies finally seized the scale of the threat, their intervention in Russia with Russian interventions that eliminated the first round of last year's election to eliminate the first round of last year's election. Later, based on rough evidence, he was banned from participating in the replay by the Constitutional Court.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance shocked European centrists in February when he slammed the EU for reducing freedom of speech without mentioning Russia's tyranny. But when he suggested overreacting to George Cu, he was doing something. Yes - Surprise, Surprise - The ban seems to have been launched to the right.
For magazine activists in the United States and elsewhere, the same victory will be another popular nail in the EU's coffin, although to attract his moderates, he said he will stay in NATO and the EU. The Kremlin had to be a rooster to find itself known as the Romanian Archers as having hated Russia in history. As for the surviving hacker Greater Romania, Their time has come.
Romanian liberals and minorities put their faint hopes on Nicuşor Dan, mayor of Bucharest, a record-record mathematician. Even if he wins, the country will face turmoil, if not a dysfunction.
Sir George Iacobescu left Romania under communism and eventually ran the Canary Wharf Group, one of Europe's largest property businesses, especially Aur's supporters, and many of the EU's large expatriates last voted. "They are destroying the country to get rid of its decayed management," he said. "It's like burning the whole forest, not just dead trees." It's a cautionary tale indeed.
Alec.russell@ft.com