Although Călin Georgescu's messages, full of legionary elements, were known, no one took legal measures against him, warns Austrian historian Oliver Jens Schmitt. Georgescu, quite simply, was underestimated.
Important institutions of the state have been propagating a more moderate type of nationalism for years – the leadership of the Romanian Academy and most of the members of the Holy Synod of the BOR – preparing the ground for a reborn Codreanu.
Given Georgescu's success, an investigation is the task of the critical press, but especially of those political forces that do not share Georgescu's openly pro-Russian course. Parliament would have an obligation to control the secret services and not the other way around.
Oliver Jens Schmitt spoke about Călin Georgescu and his rise in neo-legionary circles since two years ago, also in an interview spotmedia.ro.
Oliver Jens Schmitt, you warned about Călin Georgescu since 2022 and here he is now one of the political figures of the presidential elections in Romania. What drew attention to him?
Călin Georgescu has been extremely active on social media for years and has reached a wide audience. He has also been campaigning for a long time and has visited many small towns in the province.
Unlike George Simion, who could never break away from an aura of frivolity and trickery, and Mrs. Sosoacă, whose self-presentation is grotesque and vulgar, he attached importance to a – supposed – respectability.
He surrounded himself with intellectuals such as the former vice-president of the Academy Victor Voicu and well-known figures from the nationalist camp such as Dan Puric or Dorel Vişan. He cultivated his own rhetoric, slow and blunt, after Codreanu's model. His language is full of legionary elements.
Almost no one took him seriously. And no one took legal action against him, although he never hid his admiration for the Legion and Ion Antonescu.
Just as the press and many elites once underestimated GOLD, Georgescu was simply underestimated. Georgescu is an indicator of the extent to which legionary propaganda has slowly penetrated the Romanian mainstream.
Important state institutions have been propagating a more moderate type of nationalism for years, I am thinking of the leadership of the Romanian Academy and most of the members of the Holy Synod of the BOR, plus a parallel world of anti-Western social media. All this prepared the ground for a man who sees himself as a kind of reborn Codreanu.
What do you think his role was in this campaign? Is it self-contained or the creation of political technologists?
Mrs. Șoșoacă was excluded from the electoral process in a questionable way, obviously with the aim of strengthening George Simion so that he could reach the second round of the elections and face Marcel Ciolacu. A comparison with the Vadim Tudor constellation comes to mind versus Iliescu. This calculation did not work, Simion being overtaken by an even more extremist, far-right candidate.
From the last major report by the Recorder, we know from the mouths of some important politicians that the secret services exert a massive influence on Romanian politics.
Your question cannot be answered remotely and only with publicly available information.
Given Georgescu's success, an investigation is the task of the critical press, but especially of those political forces that do not share Georgescu's openly pro-Russian course. Parliament would have an obligation to control the secret services, and not the other way around.
Given the success of pro-Russian forces, the question arises as to who has an interest in moving Romania away from its anchor in the West – and also where Romania should be heading. In this context, it should not be forgotten that Ion Iliescu, the political father of the PSD, signed a Treaty of collaboration, good neighborliness and friendship with the Soviet Union as early as 1991.
To what extent does he share with George Simion, the AUR candidate, the extremist current? What sets them apart?
Georgescu is more radical and ideologically coherent than Simion. He wants to be perceived as a serious, calm, determined leader, full of an almost divine mission. Simion, on the other hand, comes across as frivolous, loud, vulgar and uneducated.
Georgescu studied the legionary language and ideology and imitates it. In Simion, the understanding of legionaryism is exhausted in the imitation of Codreanu's wedding. Those who think in legionary terms will opt for Georgescu, because Simion represents exactly the type of politician that the radical core of the legionnaires despised, a populist who makes unrealizable promises and deceives the people.
Georgescu is also a deceiver, but he does it much more skillfully – behind the mask of the patriot with a divine mission hides the one who is probably Putin's most successful agent of influence in Romania.
And in an election campaign in which the candidates were programmatically and intellectually disappointing, Georgescu at least made his ideological position clear.
The pro-European forces, on the other hand, were programmatically weak and unable to make the citizens realize the dramatic situation in which Europe and Romania find themselves.
A pro-Russian president of the sixth largest country in the EU, the most important NATO state on the Black Sea (Turkey is no longer a reliable ally) would represent an extraordinary triumph for Putinbut for Romania it would undo much, if not all, of the progress made in the last 35 years.
How do these Romanian elections look, in the perspective of the destabilization campaigns that Russia is intensifying?
The election allows Russia's influence to be measured in numbers. At least 30% of Romanians openly vote for pro-Russian politicians. Romania is not alone, but belongs to a number of countries such as Germany, France or Austria, where pro-Russian forces are becoming stronger and stronger.
Today, Austria's pro-Russian FPÖ won the regional elections in Styria. And in Austria, the democratic parties do not dare to openly say that the pro-Russian parties are committing treason. For tactical reasons, but also because of cowardice and analytical incompetence, they remain silent. This is also the case in Romania.
Throughout Europe, we are witnessing a dramatic decline in the intellectual level of democratic parties – and Romania is no exception.
Those who follow only their own careers become blind to the great issues of the day. And in our times, not only the big questions have to be solved by politicians, but we also face big and elemental dangers – the war that Russia is waging against Europe with the help of China, Iran and North Korea.
Romania is effectively a state on the front line. But the political elites ignore this. It is doubtful whether the candidates will be more concrete in their programs in the second round of voting.
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