Brussels – A court case hits Romania just hours before voting in the European elections. While citizens in the Netherlands are already going to the polls, in Bucharest, according to judicial authorities, Silvestru Șoșoacă, a candidate for the Europarliament, allegedly collected false signatures to be on the ballot papers. The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), a radical right-wing party, allegedly helped Șoșoacă obtain the necessary documents to run in the European elections as an independent. George Simion, leader of AUR, is being investigated by the Romanian General Prosecutor’s Office for fraudulently aiding Șoșoacă’s candidacy.
Silvestru Șoșoacă is running as an independent but is very close to the political positions of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians. For candidates who want to stand for election without a party symbol, Romanian law requires collecting 100,000 signatures. The prosecution accuses Șoșoacă of being unable to obtain them in the correct timeframe to run for office. To succeed in the elections, on April 9, during an AUR meeting, George Simion allegedly called on party members to take action to secure Șoșoacă a place on the ballot. According to the indictment, AUR allegedly included false signatures of real people on the lists instead of garnering support from citizens. The counterfeit reportedly continued throughout the day on April 10. The next day, Romania’s central election office received the necessary documents for Șoșoacă’s candidacy.
George Simion claims that the Attorney General’s Office investigation results from political action by investigators aimed at ousting AUR from the electoral race just hours before the vote. “It doesn’t matter if we come out in handcuffs, you won’t stop us: go vote on Sunday,” said Simion, who also lashed out at investigators, “the parallel state sent its law enforcement to bring dozens of people close to me and members of the campaign team and AUR to a hearing to force them to make statements against me.” Șoșoacă also declared himself not involved, arguing, “I am the one who was harmed because my candidacy is being questioned; perhaps I was cheated by a group of swindlers.”
The far right in Romania: irredentism, conspiracy and Putinism
According to a poll by Inscop, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians would be the third largest party in the country with about 17 per cent of the votes. AUR is a recent party in the Romanian arena, born only in 2019 and currently having 25 deputies out of 330. The party has far-right ideas: it aims to unify all Romanian people under the banner of Romania, anti-vax and racist toward Jews and immigrant people. Although not present in the EU Parliament in the last legislature, the AUR should join the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.
AUR’s birthday is emblematic: December 1, when Romania celebrates the Great Union Day. On that date in 1918, following World War I, Bucharest annexed Transylvania and part of Bessarabia and Bukovina to its territories, marking the birth of the so-called “Greater Romania”. Part of these territories, however, would be lost during World War II, sanctioning the birth of Romanian irredentism from which the AUR is inspired.
George Simion had tried in 2019 to get elected in Strasbourg as an independent, using an emblematic slogan in the election campaign: “Greater Romania in Europe”. The disappointing result, only 1.29 per cent, prompted him to create AUR to pursue his own political claims. Simion has always held political positions of support for Vladimir Putin, which were watered down (only partially) following Russia’s 2022 aggression against Ukraine. In April 2023, in a Facebook post of the official account of the Union of Romanians, the question was asked, “When he asks for the help of the whole world to defend his country from Russian aggression, is President Zelensky aware that he is a beneficiary of the same kidnappings, aggressions, and historical injustices that took from Greater Romania entire regions that are now part of Ukraine?” George Simion’s pro-Russian positions have also earned him the accusation from Moldova’s intelligence community that he is a collaborator with Russian intelligence services.
Since 2021, AUR has a competitor to its right, SOS Romania, born out of the outgoing Romanian Socialist Party that disagreed with the pro-vaccine line. SOS Romania, currently polled at around 7 per cent, expressed the will to join Identity and Democracy (ID) in the EU Parliament. The party’s positions are openly pro-Russian, no-vax, anti-Semitic, and irredentist. In May 2022, the familiar face of SOS Romania is Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă, a senator elected with AUR and in the process of divorcing Silvestru Șoșoacă.
Things between the Șoșoacă spouses have not ended well: the separation files are in the hands of lawyers, and the use of the surname is a matter of contention. The divorce petition came to Diana after she expelled her husband from the party. Silvestru is convinced that the accusations of falsifying signatures came from the senator, who, like him, is running for a seat in Strasbourg: “The complaint came from her, I am sure of it; I have no other enemy in the world besides Diana Iovanovici still Soșoacă.” The senator is known in Italy for having seized in 2021 Rai journalist Lucia Goracci and her crew, who were doing an investigation on no-vaxers.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
