Even assuming the voting process itself were flawless, the election was “rigged” from the moment the November results were annulled and leading candidate Georgescu was barred from running
You obsession with an election that you continue not to understand is remarkable. You still have not acquainted yourself with the basic facts of the Romanian constitution nor the powers of its constitutional court. Georgescu was disqualified on multiple, legal grounds, primarily centered on campaign finance fraud, and his appeal was rejected. That does not mean, by the way, that he cannot run again in five years. If Romanians then wish to elect a man who has claimed, on record, that water is "not just h2o" and that there are "nanochips" in soda, then they can choose to do so.
But let's be clear: the establishment's choice was not the independent Nicusor Dan, a man who made his name on an anti-establishment, activist platform fighting monied interests in Bucharest's corrupt real estate sector. Or, to put it in the terms of this article, a populist against the oligarchy. The fact that he has been labeled a centrist is a remarkable slight of hand by the international news media.
No: that individual would have been Crin Antonsecu, a PNL veteran and the establishment's clear preference in the first round. PNL are THE neoliberal party. So much so that, when Dan won second place in the first round by a slim margin, many Romanians were beside themselves with grief that the election had been thrown to Simion. Think the kind of feelings that Hillary Clinton supporters had about Bernie Sanders, and you might get in the right ballpark. The jubilation amongst young Romanians following Dan's victory Sunday night is testament to that analogy. Meanwhile, Antonescu continues to criticize Dan as a disaster for the nation.
The main takeaway of this election is that the establishment parties lost. But your analysis makes no mention of this fact.
The last time that there was "organized mass resistance" in Romania, it was against the PNL/PSD trying to legalize corruption. The spearhead of those protests? The USR, the party that Nicusor Dan founded.
The fact is that the nation roundly rejected Georgescu's proxy, Simion. Georgescu made repeated public appearances with Simion, went to the polls with him, etc. etc. If he were the preferred populist by the establishment, why did Georgescu so forthrightly support him? And why, then, did Simion lose so badly in the second round? It just turned out that what they were selling, the majority of us Romanians, who are firmly committed against Russian (or even Hungarian) autocracy, are not buying.
Namely: right-wing Christian conservatism mixed with free market economics.
Romania has surpassed Hungary economically in recent years. If we don't wish to follow Orban into the right wing populist abyss, it should come as little surprise. Not even Romania's ethnic Hungarians wished to do so: in fact, they voted for Nicusor Dan by an overwhelming majority. In Hargita County, their vote topped 90%.
Again: the elites lost. PSD and PNL are out. An independent won. Your conclusion is trying too hard to hue to a line of ideological reasoning in which being pro EU means being anti democratic. 54% of Romanians beg to differ.
I would encourage you to figure out the facts on the ground, rather than fitting an article into a neat narrative about global hegemony. We used to call that... journalism.
If you believe Georgescu's exclusion was about "campaign finance fraud" I've got a bridge to sell you. Also, the establishment is not the PNL/PSD but the EU/NATO transatlantic establishment – and Dan is a loyal servant. Once you join that club, you lose the ability to self-determine your country's path – as recent events in Romania prove. Prepare to be drawn even further into the EU/NATO proxy war against Russia. Good luck.
1m euros of social media financing, unaccounted for. Zero spending declared by Georgescu.
Simion lost by nearly 1m votes. Even with significant mental gymnastics, it's hard to imagine Georgescu winning in his place. This is what we call... self-determination. If Georgescu's disqualification was such an outrage to the Romanian people, why didn't Simion win, backed as he was wholeheartedly by Georgescu? You still have not answered this essential question.
But look, I cannot explain the totality of this situation to you. You need to read the court's decisions and the Romanian constitution yourself - hope your Romanian isn't too rusty. Otherwise, you fall victim to the same thinking present in the US: if we lose, it's a conspiracy, if we win, it's the "will of the people." See today's statements by Simion for further corroboration.
So here's another question instead: do you believe in democracy? You claim to be a socialist, but which flavor are you? I am generally sympathetic to your critiques of managerialism and technocracy, and am a regular reader of Compact. But your tacit support of Hungary and Russia is alarming, at least for a self-declared socialist who writes about democratic co-opting.
Your takes on Romania are just plain wrong. (See today's article in Compact by Thomas Gallagher for a much better informed, albeit still flawed view.) Romania has - as in the past - rejected alignment with eastern autocracy. Russia forced Romania to share in its destiny in the past - and we have no interest in doing so in the future. You can call it a proxy war if you like, but to us, it's self-determination.
Look, even a child can see that Georgescu's exclusion was a purely political decision done at the bidding of the EU-NATO establishment. That in itself invalidates the entire electoral process that just took place, regardless of whether the outcome would have been exactly the same if Georgescu had been allowed to run. That's of course very possibile – but we'll never know now, and that, ipso fact, deprives the new government of legitimacy, regardless of how much you try to downplay the severity of what happened.
You're just outright lying. Georgescu was excluded because he was a criminal. And unlike in the USA or Russia that actually disqualifies him.
You keep asserting that it was done at the bidding of the" NATO-EU Establishment" (as if that's some tangibly identifiable thing with a clear and unified set of goals instead of a coalition of different countries with different material interests). Prove it! Show, with primary sources, that this was done at the behest of the EU/NATO instead of these constant weasel words.
Thomas Fazi despite billing himself as a "socialist" is essentially a far right reactionary. He is part of a wider cabal of nu-leftist content producers who emerged in the early to mid 2010s who ostensibly champion a counter hedgemonic analysis of geopolitics but simultaneously espouse bigoted conspiracism, more stereotypically characteristic of the hard right including Covid Conspiracies, climate change denialism, and historical revisionism of the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons. Most of these people quite literally take money from the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian governments.
Like others of this milieu like Aaron Maté, Caitlin Johnstone, and Max Blumenthal, Fazi poses as a "leftist" but his views on geopolitics are in lockstep with the political status quos in Russia and Iran which by definition means supporting far right Reactionaries and oligarchs like Viktor Orban in Hungary. He'll support any politician that he claims he believes might undermine the "NATO-EU" establishment even if they're a bunch of psychotic neoliberal autocrats that persecute leftists and massacre their own people. Frankly, I don't believe Thomas Fazi is quite so stupid that he actually believes most of this stuff. It's just a psyop designed to muddy the discourse and confuse naïve western libs/leftists into supporting dictatorships.
"right-wing Christian conservatism mixed with free market economics" and nationalism pitted against corporate transhumanist globalism. Tough choice. Non-choice. Those of us who don't want either one hope they destroy each other.
Wonderful. I don't really know which story is correct but I tend to believe yours. I was on the verge of reposting this article as another proof of democratic lying etc. Now you reverse everything. And more: you call into question thomas fazi's veracity in everything now.
Your comment needs to be an article. How about you become a substacker and print it or give me permission to print it, with attribution of course, on my sites, my stubstack?
And if you have expertise on other questions beyond Romania please let us know.
A Romanian friend sent me this press release by Simion. Clever move.
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bucharest, Romania – May 20, 2025
George Simion Calls on the Constitutional Court to Annul Presidential Elections Citing Foreign Interference and Coordinated Manipulation
George Simion, presidential candidate and Vice President of the ECR Party, has officially submitted a formal request to the Constitutional Court of Romania to annul the May 2025 presidential elections, citing foreign interference by both state and non-state actors—now proven through hard evidence.
Simion received the support of over 5.3 million Romanian voters in an extraordinarily tight and highly contested race—a clear sign that the outcome of this election is not just about numbers, but about the legitimacy and integrity of the entire democratic process.
“The very reasons used to annul the December elections—external influence and institutional compromise—are even more clearly present today,” stated Simion. “We now have irrefutable evidence of meddling by France, Moldova, and other actors, in an orchestrated effort to manipulate institutions, direct media narratives, and ultimately impose a result that does not reflect the sovereign will of the Romanian people.”
Simion has urged all Romanian citizens to file individual appeals with the Constitutional Court, contesting the legality of the elections. To facilitate this action, he has published a model appeal along with clear instructions to guide voters through the process and empower them to take constitutional action.
In a powerful development, Simion referenced the message sent by the owner of Telegram to all platform users, warning about electoral manipulation efforts targeting Romania. Simion has now called on the Court to invite the Telegram CEO to testify and share firsthand what he knows about the disinformation and digital operations that interfered with Romania’s elections.
“We will not surrender. We will not betray. This is not the end—this is the beginning of a great national awakening,” Simion declared.
By hook or by crook the establishment wins and us puppets to the puppeteers get pulled around and around. Those that try to cut the strings never get to the throne of power the establishment has many ways to prevent a coup.
You obsession with an election that you continue not to understand is remarkable. You still have not acquainted yourself with the basic facts of the Romanian constitution nor the powers of its constitutional court. Georgescu was disqualified on multiple, legal grounds, primarily centered on campaign finance fraud, and his appeal was rejected. That does not mean, by the way, that he cannot run again in five years. If Romanians then wish to elect a man who has claimed, on record, that water is "not just h2o" and that there are "nanochips" in soda, then they can choose to do so.
But let's be clear: the establishment's choice was not the independent Nicusor Dan, a man who made his name on an anti-establishment, activist platform fighting monied interests in Bucharest's corrupt real estate sector. Or, to put it in the terms of this article, a populist against the oligarchy. The fact that he has been labeled a centrist is a remarkable slight of hand by the international news media.
No: that individual would have been Crin Antonsecu, a PNL veteran and the establishment's clear preference in the first round. PNL are THE neoliberal party. So much so that, when Dan won second place in the first round by a slim margin, many Romanians were beside themselves with grief that the election had been thrown to Simion. Think the kind of feelings that Hillary Clinton supporters had about Bernie Sanders, and you might get in the right ballpark. The jubilation amongst young Romanians following Dan's victory Sunday night is testament to that analogy. Meanwhile, Antonescu continues to criticize Dan as a disaster for the nation.
The main takeaway of this election is that the establishment parties lost. But your analysis makes no mention of this fact.
The last time that there was "organized mass resistance" in Romania, it was against the PNL/PSD trying to legalize corruption. The spearhead of those protests? The USR, the party that Nicusor Dan founded.
The fact is that the nation roundly rejected Georgescu's proxy, Simion. Georgescu made repeated public appearances with Simion, went to the polls with him, etc. etc. If he were the preferred populist by the establishment, why did Georgescu so forthrightly support him? And why, then, did Simion lose so badly in the second round? It just turned out that what they were selling, the majority of us Romanians, who are firmly committed against Russian (or even Hungarian) autocracy, are not buying.
Namely: right-wing Christian conservatism mixed with free market economics.
Romania has surpassed Hungary economically in recent years. If we don't wish to follow Orban into the right wing populist abyss, it should come as little surprise. Not even Romania's ethnic Hungarians wished to do so: in fact, they voted for Nicusor Dan by an overwhelming majority. In Hargita County, their vote topped 90%.
Again: the elites lost. PSD and PNL are out. An independent won. Your conclusion is trying too hard to hue to a line of ideological reasoning in which being pro EU means being anti democratic. 54% of Romanians beg to differ.
I would encourage you to figure out the facts on the ground, rather than fitting an article into a neat narrative about global hegemony. We used to call that... journalism.
If you believe Georgescu's exclusion was about "campaign finance fraud" I've got a bridge to sell you. Also, the establishment is not the PNL/PSD but the EU/NATO transatlantic establishment – and Dan is a loyal servant. Once you join that club, you lose the ability to self-determine your country's path – as recent events in Romania prove. Prepare to be drawn even further into the EU/NATO proxy war against Russia. Good luck.
1m euros of social media financing, unaccounted for. Zero spending declared by Georgescu.
Simion lost by nearly 1m votes. Even with significant mental gymnastics, it's hard to imagine Georgescu winning in his place. This is what we call... self-determination. If Georgescu's disqualification was such an outrage to the Romanian people, why didn't Simion win, backed as he was wholeheartedly by Georgescu? You still have not answered this essential question.
But look, I cannot explain the totality of this situation to you. You need to read the court's decisions and the Romanian constitution yourself - hope your Romanian isn't too rusty. Otherwise, you fall victim to the same thinking present in the US: if we lose, it's a conspiracy, if we win, it's the "will of the people." See today's statements by Simion for further corroboration.
So here's another question instead: do you believe in democracy? You claim to be a socialist, but which flavor are you? I am generally sympathetic to your critiques of managerialism and technocracy, and am a regular reader of Compact. But your tacit support of Hungary and Russia is alarming, at least for a self-declared socialist who writes about democratic co-opting.
Your takes on Romania are just plain wrong. (See today's article in Compact by Thomas Gallagher for a much better informed, albeit still flawed view.) Romania has - as in the past - rejected alignment with eastern autocracy. Russia forced Romania to share in its destiny in the past - and we have no interest in doing so in the future. You can call it a proxy war if you like, but to us, it's self-determination.
Look, even a child can see that Georgescu's exclusion was a purely political decision done at the bidding of the EU-NATO establishment. That in itself invalidates the entire electoral process that just took place, regardless of whether the outcome would have been exactly the same if Georgescu had been allowed to run. That's of course very possibile – but we'll never know now, and that, ipso fact, deprives the new government of legitimacy, regardless of how much you try to downplay the severity of what happened.
You're just outright lying. Georgescu was excluded because he was a criminal. And unlike in the USA or Russia that actually disqualifies him.
You keep asserting that it was done at the bidding of the" NATO-EU Establishment" (as if that's some tangibly identifiable thing with a clear and unified set of goals instead of a coalition of different countries with different material interests). Prove it! Show, with primary sources, that this was done at the behest of the EU/NATO instead of these constant weasel words.
You're wasting your time.
Thomas Fazi despite billing himself as a "socialist" is essentially a far right reactionary. He is part of a wider cabal of nu-leftist content producers who emerged in the early to mid 2010s who ostensibly champion a counter hedgemonic analysis of geopolitics but simultaneously espouse bigoted conspiracism, more stereotypically characteristic of the hard right including Covid Conspiracies, climate change denialism, and historical revisionism of the Assad regimes use of chemical weapons. Most of these people quite literally take money from the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian governments.
Like others of this milieu like Aaron Maté, Caitlin Johnstone, and Max Blumenthal, Fazi poses as a "leftist" but his views on geopolitics are in lockstep with the political status quos in Russia and Iran which by definition means supporting far right Reactionaries and oligarchs like Viktor Orban in Hungary. He'll support any politician that he claims he believes might undermine the "NATO-EU" establishment even if they're a bunch of psychotic neoliberal autocrats that persecute leftists and massacre their own people. Frankly, I don't believe Thomas Fazi is quite so stupid that he actually believes most of this stuff. It's just a psyop designed to muddy the discourse and confuse naïve western libs/leftists into supporting dictatorships.
"right-wing Christian conservatism mixed with free market economics" and nationalism pitted against corporate transhumanist globalism. Tough choice. Non-choice. Those of us who don't want either one hope they destroy each other.
Wonderful. I don't really know which story is correct but I tend to believe yours. I was on the verge of reposting this article as another proof of democratic lying etc. Now you reverse everything. And more: you call into question thomas fazi's veracity in everything now.
Your comment needs to be an article. How about you become a substacker and print it or give me permission to print it, with attribution of course, on my sites, my stubstack?
And if you have expertise on other questions beyond Romania please let us know.
A Romanian friend sent me this press release by Simion. Clever move.
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bucharest, Romania – May 20, 2025
George Simion Calls on the Constitutional Court to Annul Presidential Elections Citing Foreign Interference and Coordinated Manipulation
George Simion, presidential candidate and Vice President of the ECR Party, has officially submitted a formal request to the Constitutional Court of Romania to annul the May 2025 presidential elections, citing foreign interference by both state and non-state actors—now proven through hard evidence.
Simion received the support of over 5.3 million Romanian voters in an extraordinarily tight and highly contested race—a clear sign that the outcome of this election is not just about numbers, but about the legitimacy and integrity of the entire democratic process.
“The very reasons used to annul the December elections—external influence and institutional compromise—are even more clearly present today,” stated Simion. “We now have irrefutable evidence of meddling by France, Moldova, and other actors, in an orchestrated effort to manipulate institutions, direct media narratives, and ultimately impose a result that does not reflect the sovereign will of the Romanian people.”
Simion has urged all Romanian citizens to file individual appeals with the Constitutional Court, contesting the legality of the elections. To facilitate this action, he has published a model appeal along with clear instructions to guide voters through the process and empower them to take constitutional action.
In a powerful development, Simion referenced the message sent by the owner of Telegram to all platform users, warning about electoral manipulation efforts targeting Romania. Simion has now called on the Court to invite the Telegram CEO to testify and share firsthand what he knows about the disinformation and digital operations that interfered with Romania’s elections.
“We will not surrender. We will not betray. This is not the end—this is the beginning of a great national awakening,” Simion declared.
Got it
By hook or by crook the establishment wins and us puppets to the puppeteers get pulled around and around. Those that try to cut the strings never get to the throne of power the establishment has many ways to prevent a coup.