by H&D’s American correspondent Kenneth Schmidt
On November 24th the whole continent of Europe was shocked by an unexpected victory in the first round of the Romanian presidential elections. Calin Georgescu came in first with 22.9% of the vote. Georgescu, an independent not affiliated with a political party, was scoring between eight to ten percentage points in the polls. Most people were expecting that the top scorer would be Elena Lasconi, the centre-right candidate and that George Simion, a national-conservative in the Trumpist vein, would come in second and make the runoff. This did not take place. Georgescu, who previously was expelled from Simion’s AUR for praising Coneiliu Codreanu and Ion Antonescu, came out on top and will be running against Lasconi in the 2nd round on December 8th.
Georgescu, who has a PhD. in Soil Science, had, up until 2020, been a distinguished globalist functionary. He held high ranking posts in the UN related to sustainable development and was a high ranking member of the shadowy globalist Club of Rome.
He then renounced his globalist past and declared the virtues of Romanian Nationalists of the past. He said in 2020: “Ion Antonescu and Corneliu Zelea Codreanu are heroes through whom national history lived, through them speaks and spoke the national history and not through the lackeys of the globalist powers that lead Romania today, only temporarily.”
Georgescu ran a unique campaign. Apart from a few campaign appearances in rural areas, his chief weapon was, amazingly, TikTok videos ! His short, pithy messages must have struck a chord in the Romanian imagination. Since his victory on the 24th, Simion of the AUR has endorsed him in the runoff set of December 8th. The parliamentary elections are set for December 1st. Since Simion has the largest nationalistic party, I hope that he will prevail in those elections.
As a side note there is actually a third nationalist party that has appeared on the political scene, SOS Romania, led by a lady named Diana Sosaca. Some Romanian judge arbitrarily denied Ms. Sosaca her right to run in the presidential contest. SOS Romania has one legislator in the Romanian senate and two MEP representatives in Brussels.
Although there were nationalist organizations and parties attempting to make an impact in Romanian politics, it was not until 2019, when the AUR was founded by George Simion, that any group began to grab public attention. One has to go as far back as The Greater Romania Party of the 90’s and early 2000’s to find a nationalistic party of any effectiveness. The Greater Romania Party was led by a man named Corneliu Vadim Tudor. He actually managed to participate in a coalition government 1993-1995. The party then took 2nd place in the presidential elections of 2000. However, that was the high water mark. Tudor’s leadership was somewhat erratic. He would moderate the party’s positions for short-term goals. Tudor would do odd things like arrange visits to Holocaust memorials and hire Israeli campaign consultants. The Greater Romania Party quickly declined and Mr. Tudor died in 2015. Romanian Nationalism went into a long period of hibernation. Here we are in 2024 and Romania has a valid national-conservative party in the Alliance for the Union of Romanians and a possible independent president with Iron-guardist tendencies.There is also another party with some clout in SOS Romania. Finally, Romanian Nationalism seems to have found its footing.