Romania Moves Right Politically as Economic Worries Grow
- Chethana Janith
- 14 hours ago
- 6 min read
Chethana Janith, Jadetimes Staff
C. Janith is a Jadetimes news reporter and sub-editor covering science and geopolitics.
As frustration mounted and mainstream candidates failed to convince, a new face became appealing to a large segment of the population.
It seems that the Romanian Constitutional Court ruling to annul the Presidential Elections results in December 2024, under claims of “Russian meddling” in the November elections’ 1st round results -on social media somehow- did not halt the real shift in the Romanian political arena, or more importantly, change the state of the Romanian economy.
The Georgescu/Simion Shift
After the 1st round of the November 2024 Presidential Elections, made it clear that the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) candidate, Călin Georgescu, labeled an “Ultranationalist”, was on his way to Cotroceni Palace. It was very obvious that “Brussels” got worried from this Right-Shift of Romanian voters, and the wave of nationalist, Eurosceptic, and anti-NATO sentiments.
However, this collective sigh of relief emanating from Brussels has not lasted for long.
As George Simion secured around 41% of the votes for AUR, during the 1st round of the re-run Romanian presidential elections. Leading to a 2nd round, where he would compete with Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan, the centrist candidate who came second in the 1st round, with 21% of the votes.
Yet another stark loss for Romania’s governing coalition, as Dan pushed Crin Antonescu to 3rd place with less than a 1% edge. Antonescu is the candidate who was supported by the Hungarian Minority Party (UDMR), alongside its two ruling partners, the Social Democrat Party (SDP) and the National Liberal Party (PNL).
I think it’s fair to expect, a heightening of the same “Russian Bear” meddling rhetoric, and an elevation in the level of pro-Russian, anti-NATO, and anti-European accusations towards Simion, as he seems to have one foot inside Cotroceni.
But is Russia really the problem, or is the Romanian economy the real “Bear” in the room?
The Bear in the European Room
The political shift of voting trends across Europe. With Herbert Kick’s Right-Wing Eurosceptic Freedom Party (FPÖ), holding 29% of the parliamentary seats in the Austrian Nationalrat since September 2024.
Luis Montenegro’s Democratic Alliance, winning the parliamentary elections in Portugal in March 2024, And Belgium’s two Right-Wing parties securing the top two positions in the Parliamentary Elections in June 2024.
And as the Republican Front, with the help of the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), had to coalesce, to be able to block the rise of the Far-Right “Jean-Marie Le Pen”’s Rassemblement National from rising to the helm of the French government. To Victor Orban’s Fidesz in Hungary, To Germany’s AfD headache, To Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, that inspired George Simion to call for a “Melonisation of Europe” Agenda. And the list of Right-Shifts goes all the way to the European Parliament itself.
Some analysts suffice with referring to the anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic, or protectionist reasonings behind these European political Right-Shifts. While some others blame this Right-Shift on the “Decline of the Left”, ignoring the fact that Left-Wing parties are still holding parliamentary majorities and governing countries such as Spain, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia Lithuania, and Denmark.
It seems that rarely any of those “mainstream” analysts, want to point at the “bear” in the middle of the room. No, not the “Russian Bear”, but in the famous words of Former US President Bill Clinton during his 1992 Presidential Campaign: “It’s the economy, stupid!”
The Romanian Economic Woes
Regardless of the fact that Romania is literally struggling with increasing numbers of real Brown Bear attack incidents, it seems that Romanian citizens are not ignoring the biggest “bear” either. Every day Romanians cannot ignore their daily livelihood needs, increasing prices, inflation levels, exposure to high levels of housing speculation, especially since 2009, etc.
And on the macroeconomic level, the Lack of balance and procyclical fiscal and budgetary policies, over-reliance on low value-added industries, employment system structural problems, among other major economic and financial issues.
Not to ignore, that Fondul Proprietatea, or Romania’s Property Fund, established in 2005, is actually a private entity, independent of the Romanian Government. A purportedly “sovereign” fund, suffering from major problems, like a problematic compensation scheme for the shareholders, as its shares cannot be traded in the market, with a very meek amount of money, in a fund that has been criticized as “insufficient in size”. More official criticisms have been directed to the Romanian Fund, from the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe over the last two decades.
And on a side note, yet an important one, a Selection Commission has decided since June 2009, to designate Franklin Templeton Investment Management Ltd, for the manager position of Fondul Proprietatea.
An American -so-called global or multinational- asset management and holding company, you can simply learn more about one of its decisions made during the spread of COVID-19 Pandemic, which the Economic Times called: “A crippling market dislocation, fed by the onset of the Covid pandemic, had sucked out liquidity from the funds’ underlying holdings”.
What Do Romanians Think?
We cannot ignore the Romanian worries about Hungarian immigrants, as the government has expressed its anxiety before, about possible problems that could suddenly be caused by the Hungarian minority in Romania. These worries have been exasperated by the rise of Ukrainian immigration to Romania since 2022, including ethnically Hungarian Ukrainians.
No wonder that a Romanian voter would welcome the rise of Simion’s AUR, and it pushing out a governing alliance that includes the “Hungarian” UDMR party in it.
Nor can we dismiss, the legitimate Romanian NATO worries, adequately summarized by Romania’s banned presidential candidate, Călin Georgescu, when he expressed his worries that Romania is being used as a gateway, or as he called it during his interview with Info Wars’ Alex Jones: “the real door to war”. Calling out the current “staunchly pro-Ukrainian” governing alliance in Romania, as “puppets”, who are being used to help NATO “start World War III in Ukraine”. Georgescu also warned against expanding NATO’s “Mihail Kogalniceanu” airbase in Romania, as it would turn the country into a strategic hotspot, inviting a needless conflict with the Russian Federation.
Yet, all these valid Romanian anxieties, rattling the internal political arena in the Balkan country, do not cover all the reasons that Romanians chose to vote “Right”.
Romanian families express their disappointment, as they increasingly choose lower product qualities, seeking lower prices in the face of the current dire state of the economy. Pushing voters to shed their political ideologies, with increasing numbers of citizens switching their votes from left-wing Social Democrat Party, to Simion’s Right-Wing AUR, and centrist independent candidate Nicușor Dan.
Cristian Valeriu Paun, professor of international finance at the University of Economics in Bucharest, emphasized that “these elections are very important to solve a major economic problem in Romania: inflation”.
With the incessant rise of medical bills and pharmaceutical prices, elderly Romanians find themselves more reliant on the transfers of Romanian expats working abroad, as they find their budgets insufficient to cover the medical expenses, essential foodstuffs, and household electricity and water bills.
Romanian citizens express their despair, as they choose to limit their diets to cheaper vegetables, decreasing the meat intake in their diets. And even choose to buy their vegetables from the markets in the afternoons, when the prices slightly decrease, as if they’re buying stock, not essentials.
Their worries of a repeat of the record 14% inflation level of 2022, is another feed adding to the Right-Wing voter sentiments’ shift. Voters who wake up daily to read the news about a debt-to-GDP ratio, projected to surpass 72% between 2024 and 2029. An outdated public sector bureaucracy blocking the country’s veins, and causing a deterioration of most public services, and the lack of strategic planning for real economic reforms from the governing coalition.
Problems that even compelled Radu Burnete, Director of Concordia Employers’ Confederation of Romania, who does not sound like a Simion voter, to say: “As frustration mounted, and mainstream candidates failed to convince, a new face became appealing to a large segment of the population, despite the complete lack of economic sense in their political platform”.
The “Real Bear” Unmasked
No wonder, then, that the Romanian voters’ sentiments would shift towards Euroscepticism, anti-immigration, anti-NATO and pro-economic reforms. Yet, at best, Western analysts would summarize all these problems and woes, into a rise of “Trumpism” in European politics, or at worst, they would prefer to falsely lump it all into a “Pro-Russia” generic accusation. This could be a laughing matter, if it were not so consequential, to the level that Romania’s top court, would actually cancel the results of an election, under claims of “Russian meddling”, emulating the falsehood that was made famous under the name “Russiagate”, During the 2016 US Presidential Elections.
Europeans prefer to disguise the real “bear” in the middle of their rooms, under the fake guise of a “Russian bear”.
So, as we continue to closely follow the news about the Romanian Elections, let’s keep reminding them.
It’s the economy, stupid!
Comments