Update to "Romanians Are Not So Passive as We Thought"

More news emerging...

My piece on the Romanian election just been republished today in the New English Review.

Romanians go back to the polls today to vote for Parliament. This vote will show if the conservative momentum continues and what will be the makeup of the Parliament that the incoming President must work with. The front-runner, Calin Georgescu, does not really have his own party, so everyone is keen to see what support other conservative/nationalist/”far right” parties get. (Tip from a colleague: Watch out for the Party of Youth.)

And again next Sunday, they will vote a third time in the run-off round of the presidential elections between Georgescu and the centrist candidate, Elena Lasconi, who is fiercely pro-EU, pro-NATO, and pro-war.

The westernized Romanian political class is tearing out their hair at the results. The media quotes only people with a single opinion and constantly drop hints about “suspicions” of ”irregularities” in the voting and especially of Russian interference, but when pressed they must admit that not a shred of evidence has been produced about any such thing. Despite this lack of any justification, the Constitutional Court has issued an unprecedented demand for a recount (though the Prime Minister, from the losing party, admits that they did request any recount), and suggested that it might annul the result.

A few voices of sanity have been heard in the alternative media.

The New English Review does take comments from readers.

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This piece has just been published at the Forum for Democracy International (AfD), a think tank and political party in the Netherlands. It will likely be published elsewhere as well. It is a little different from my usual subject matter, but the horrifying developments not far away in Ukraine and the present brinksmanship that is propelling the West and Russia dangerously close to nuclear war — all this give this election result an importance that may not be immediately apparent. Romania may soon join Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, and other dissenters from the “collective West” consensus, and Romania is a frontline state with major NATO bases. Neglected Romania at last has a chance, not only to be heard, but to influence events.

The AfD site does not take comments, but you can comment here below.

AfD also reprinted my recent piece on the US elections, “So the Good Guy Won, and the Bad Guys Lost?”

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Romanians Are Not So Passive as We Thought

27 November 2024 | Stephen Baskerville

The first-round result in Romania’s presidential election has shocked the European political class. Calin Georgescu, a candidate from the “extreme right,” who was ignored in pre-election news broadcasts and polls, just won first place with 23% of the vote. The candidate favored by the media (and pollsters), current Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, came in third with 19% rather than the predicted 26%. In the second round, Georgescu will compete with another media favorite, Elena Lasconi, variously described as “liberal” and “center-right” (ideological labels are flexible in Romania) and an “ardent backer of Romania's membership in NATO and the EU, as well as a vocal supporter of Ukraine” (in the description of Radio Free Europe).

Romania has long been known as a traditionalist and Christian country, like most of East-Central Europe. (…)

Read the rest at the Forum for Democracy International.

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If you want to read more analysis that will push you to think “outside the box,” you will find it in my new book, Who Lost America? Why the United States Went "Communist” — and What to Do about It — available from Amazon.

Stephen Baskerville is Professor of Politics at the Collegium Intermarium in Warsaw. His books and recent articles are available at www.StephenBaskerville.com.