Is Romania’s stolen election what’s in store for “democracy” in the West?
To save Democracy, the US and the European elites appear to have found it necessary to destroy democracy. For the first time ever an election was overturned in an EU/NATO country. Ever. There were no allegations of voting irregularities – it was about whether Russia had spent money on a Tik Tok influence campaign to support the eventual winner of the first round. If that sounds an unconvincing reason for such an historic event, the truth (see below) is even weirder.
Did the Russians brainwash millions of Romanians to vote for Georgescu?
November 24, 2024. Nine million Romanians vote.
Over 9.4 million Romanians voted in the first round of Presidential elections. Shock horror: neither of the governing parties – the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) – got a candidate into the second round. Călin Georgescu, dubbed a right-wing populist (lukewarm on NATO, wants to stop support for Ukraine), took first place with 23% of the vote. Second place went to another outsider, reformist candidate Elena Lasconi.
Why this matters and matters greatly to the US and their European allies is that Romania is a frontline state, bordering Ukraine and – this is really important – the site of what will soon be the biggest US base in Europe, 50% bigger than their enormous, missile, bomber and troop-laden Ramstein air base in Germany. The base near Constanța on Romania’s Black Sea coast is designed to be a bone in Russia’s throat. Georgescu has campaigned against Romania being a forward fire base in the event of war between NATO and Russia.
November 29, 2024. Narrative of Tik Tok interference campaign
Romania's top court indicated it may annul the elections, citing intelligence services suspicions of Russian social media interference in the campaign. Washington immediately released a statement expressing both its horror at the skullduggery and relief at Romania’s stalwart action.
On closer scrutiny neither the official nor media reports provided any serious proof of who did what.
“The annulment of the elections is a very significant matter, and we must be convinced and clear that it was the right decision,” said Nicușor Dan, Bucharest mayor on January 5. “For now, we do not have that clarity.”
Let’s assume the Russians did it.
Even if the Russians did it, in what crazy world would you wipe an election for a Tik Tok campaign, particularly one that was at best a few hundred thousands dollars worth of advertising/messaging/chatting - in contrast to the millions of dollars the US State Department and various branches of the US government spent on the same campaign?
December 6. The 9.4 million votes are wiped.
The votes of 9.4 million Romanians are incinerated. The decision by Romania’s Constitutional Court, controlled, one should mention, by the ruling parties, triggers demonstrations.
Thousands hit the street to protest what they saw as a preemptive coup d’etat. Even usually reliable Politico admitted: “The unprecedented cancellation of Romania’s vote drew condemnation from across the political spectrum, including from Georgescu’s ideological foes. His would-be opponent in the now-canceled runoff, reformist candidate Elena Lasconi, said Romania’s democracy was being “trampled” by the state.”
Elena Lasconi, who came second to Georgescu: “Today is the moment when the Romanian state has trampled on democracy. God, the Romanian people, truth and law will prevail and find those responsible for destroying our democracy.”
December 12 - It probably wasn’t the Russians!
Politico reported that “The center-right Romanian National Liberal Party (PNL) paid for a campaign on TikTok that ended up favoring far-right independent candidate Călin Georgescu, a new report from investigative outlet snoop.ro indicates.”
WTF? Why? It now seems that the Tik Tok campaign was likely following a playbook common in US and other elections - Party A secretly boosts Party B to draw off support from Party C. To use a US example: A Republican action group (A) might boost Green party candidate Jill Stein (B) in the hope of drawing off votes from Joe Biden (C).
But it all went horribly wrong when Georgescu’s campaign caught fire and he went from a minor candidate to the frontrunner.
US journalist Ryan Grim from Breaking Points said of the US role in trashing the democratic process: “They knew, with certainty, for a fact, who ran this thing, and the State Department publicly supported the annulment of this election.”
January 16, 2025. A new election date of May 4, 2025.
All bids by Georgescu and others to uphold the vote were rejected in EU courts and the Venice Commission, who all refused to rule on the validity or otherwise of the claims. The whole thing will be re-run and this time the ruling parties, the Americans, and the European political elites are determined to get the best democracy that money, state interference, major media and court orders can deliver. Washington-linked media such as Euroactiv are even floating the idea that it would be simpler to disqualify Georgescu.
One fly in the ointment is that Georgescu’s support in the polls continues to rise. Polls show Georgescu in first place with 38% support, up from 23% in his voided victory in November, despite, you guessed it, no Tik Tok interference. What is more likely to account for the support for Georgescu, an agronomist and former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, is widespread disgust with the corruption of the ruling class and their subservience to Washington.
I wanted to talk about Dracula; Romanians wanted to talk about the other living dead: their corrupt elites.
I’d like to talk to you about Dracula.
Here is a flavour, a delicious flavour, of the Romanian political class. I visited Romania in 2017. I learnt a bit of Romanian and, since I was going to Transylvannia, I memorised, for fun, “Aș dori să vorbesc cu tine despre Dracula.” I would like to talk to you about Dracula. It always got a laugh but what Romanians most wanted to talk about were the current living dead they couldn’t get rid of: their corrupt elites.
Just before the trip I read of huge protests in Bucharest after the parliament met in the dead of night to pass an emergency ordinance that decriminalized political graft/corruption under $50,000! By pure coincidence, no doubt, a party boss had just been sent to the slammer for $47,000 graft.
Around the same time, there were more protests against another piece of legislation (I’m not making this up!) that had the noble aim of reducing overcrowding in the prison system by (long roll of drums, please) releasing the corrupt politicians who had finally been incarcerated for their many and various crimes.
Going from that to overthrowing an election is obviously not a big leap. What is truly astounding, however, is the way the mainstream media has built a sense of normalcy, a sense of “nothing to see here”, a kind of Jedi mind trick to make you think that what was done in Romania was legit. Equally shocking is the way the European institutions didn’t lift a finger to defend the democratic process or conduct a serious review.
The heroes for me in this story are the independent investigative reporters and truth tellers who uncovered so much of this – for example, Alexander Zaitchik who wrote a detailed exposé in Dropsite and Truthdig.
The way to beat far-right or other people you are opposed to isn’t to put a torch to democracy, subvert the electoral process and drag major institutions, leaders and media into the gutter with you; it is to strengthen people’s confidence in the process and win both the debate and the elections by means fair not foul.
EUGENE DOYLE
Eugene Doyle is a writer based in Wellington. He has written extensively on the Middle East, as well as peace and security issues in the Asia Pacific region. He hosts the public policy platform solidarity.co.nz.
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