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Alliance for the Union of Romanians
Political party in Romania and Moldova From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Romanian: Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor, AUR) is a right-wing populist political party in Romania and Moldova. It was founded in 2019 ahead of the 2020 Romanian local and parliamentary elections. The party president is George Simion. The party ran in the local elections, obtaining less than 1% nationwide. However, in the parliamentary election, AUR won 9% of the vote, thus becoming the fourth-largest party in the country at the central level, which surprised observers. In the 2024 parliamentary election, the party received 18% of the vote, becoming the second largest party.
AUR's stated goal is the unification of all Romanians, in practice meaning advocacy for a unification of Moldova and Romania,[25] and support of the Romanian diaspora abroad. It has been described as supporting anti-vaccination ideas and being fascist,[26][27][28][29][30] Magyarophobic,[31][32][10] conservative,[5][6] pro-Russian,[33][34][35][36] and pro-Israel.[37] The party states that its four main pillars are "family, nation, Christian faith, and liberty". The party has been described as being right-wing,[38][39][40] as well as far-right.[41][42][43]
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History
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Background and founding
The Alliance for the Union of Romanians was formally established on 19 September 2019.[44] Later, during the Great Union Day of Romania on 1 December 2019, its leader, George Simion, said the party's aims were to participate in the 2020 Romanian local and legislative elections of the country.[45] Simion had up to this point been a campaigner for the unification of Romania and the Republic of Moldova.[10] Claudiu Târziu, who was co-president of the party along Simion until 27 March 2022,[46] was a member of Coalition for the Family which unsuccessfully campaigned to ban gay marriage through constitutional change in a 2018 referendum.[47][48]
On 26 June 2020, AUR condemned the disinterest of the Romanian authorities regarding the minority rights of the Romanians in Serbia and Ukraine and declared that it would fully support them once it entered the Romanian Parliament.[49] Two days later, AUR also condemned the 80th anniversary of the annexation of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region by the Soviet Union, declaring that "it is our obligation to regain our state".[50] By July 2020, AUR counted 22 branches in Europe and North America for the Romanian diaspora.[51] The first of these was established in Wolverhampton, in the United Kingdom.[52] AUR was the only party in Romania that expressed support for Donald Trump in the lead-up to the 2020 United States presidential election.[53]
During the 2020 Romanian local elections on 27 September, AUR won the mayoralty in three towns: Amara, Pufești, and Valea Lungă.[54]
Election to Parliament and first legislature (2020–2024)
In the 2020 Romanian legislative election, AUR obtained a high percentage of the votes, being called as the "surprise" of Romania. The results also increased the popularity of the party on the Internet.[10][55][56] The party came first among Romanians in Italy, the largest group of the Romanian diaspora, and ran a close second among Romanians in France and Romanians in Spain. It also scored first in Cyprus.[57] AUR's candidate for prime minister was Călin Georgescu, who worked for the United Nations for 17 years.[58] According to a statement released by AUR on 8 December 2020, 15,000 Romanians joined the party in just 24 hours. The party got 47 MPs in the 2020–2024 Romanian legislature.[59]
The party achieved good results in rural areas of Moldavia and Dobruja, areas traditionally dominated by the other big parties. Its most significant percentages were in the counties where the Romanian Orthodox Church has a strong influence and a large number of practicing believers. These are Suceava (14.72%), Botoșani (14.62%), Neamț (14.4%), Constanța (14.2%), and Vrancea (13.43%).[60] The party speculated the new communication channels (social networks) in a similar way to the Greater Romania Party (PRM) of the late 1990s - early 2000s, which used the newspaper "România Mare" (Greater Romania) as a communication channel, reaching high electoral scores. Another example is the People's Party – Dan Diaconescu (PP-DD), which was propelled with the help of the OTV television channel.[60]
Recorder, a Romanian online publisher, argues that the election campaign of AUR has adapted to the rural environment, which lacks modern technology, relying more on messages desired by the masses than on a coherent ideology. In this way, they argue, in addition to a core of supporters who voted for radical messages, there is also the wider category of electorate strictly attracted by populist messages.[60]
On 22 January 2021, Simion announced that the party would officially adhere at European level to the "European Conservatives and Reformists Party" after going on visits in Poland and Brussels, Belgium.[61] Simion announced on 15 March 2021 that the AUR had intentions to start operating in the Republic of Moldova on the occasion of the Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania celebrated every 27 March.[62] The party was officially launched, as previously stated, on 27 March 2021, and the elected president of the party was Vlad Bilețchi, a renowned Moldovan unionist.[63] This new section of the AUR in Moldova later participated in the Moldovan snap parliamentary elections of 11 July 2021.[64]
On 2 October 2021, AUR organised a 15,000–20,000 people-strong protest against COVID-19 restrictions at the Victory Square in Bucharest, drawing both national and international attention and being the most attended protest in Romania since the start of the pandemic.[65][66] On 5 October 2021, a motion of no confidence initiated by AUR, but legally proposed by PSD, was passed with 281 votes, thus dismissing the Cîțu Cabinet.[67]
On 27 March 2022, AUR held its first party congress at the Palace of the Parliament. On it, it was intended to elect the party's president. There were two candidates, Simion and Dănuț Aelenei, AUR deputy in the Constanța County. Aelenei claimed to have nominated himself with the simple intention of showing that AUR was a democratic party and that he did not intend to "expel" Simion from the party, admitting that he was less well-known compared to him. 784 voted for Simion and 38 for Aelenei, making Simion the party's sole president after having previously shared leadership with Târziu, who became president of the party's CNC.[46] In November 2022, Simion met with Israel's ambassador to Romania, Reuven Azar. The encounter drew outrage from some Israelis and diaspora Jews, as AUR is officially boycotted by Israel due to its history of judeophobia.[68][69] On 29 January 2023, Ramona-Ioana Bruynseels, a former candidate for the Humanist Power Party in the 2019 presidential election, joined AUR.[70][71]
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On 14 November 2023, at an AUR press conference, Lidia Vadim-Tudor (the daughter of the late Corneliu Vadim Tudor), former Minister for Business Environment Ilan Laufer (who is also the president of the National Identity Force), businessman Muhammad Murad, entrepreneur Sorin Constantinescu and Sorin Ilieșiu, as well as deputies Florică Calotă (who was elected on PNL list), Daniel Forea (elected on PSD list), Dumitru Viorel Focșa (elected on AUR, but later left) and senators Ovidiu Iosif Florean (elected on PNL list), Călin Gheorghe Matieș (elected on PSD list) and Vasilică Potecă (elected on PNL list) announced that they are joining AUR for the next election.[72] Later, on 21 November, AUR announced, together with the Romanian Village Party, National Rebirth Alliance, Romanian Republican Party and National Peasants' Alliance the creation of a Sovereigntist Alliance to contest the 2024 Romanian parliamentary election.[73][74] On 2 April 2024, Mihail Neamțu, former leader of the New Republic party, joined AUR.[75][76][77]
In the 2024 European Parliament Election, AUR gained five seats in the EU Parliament, with a total of 6 seats, receiving 14.9% of the total votes.[78] AUR previously held only 1 seat in the European Parliament.[79] In the party's first local elections on 9 June 2024, AUR gained 10.7% for county councils and 9.5% for local councils.
Presidential elections and second legislature (2024–present)
In the first round of the 2024 Romanian presidential election on 24 November, Simion received 13.9% of the vote, not preceding to the planned runoff on 8 December. However, the runoff was never held as due to accusations of Russian interference in favour of first round winner Călin Georgescu. In the 2024 parliamentary election a week later, AUR received 18% of the vote, becoming the second largest party in both houses of the Romanian Parliament.[80]
The aftermath of the first presidential vote was controversial and led Romania to the brink of a political crisis,[81] with AUR aligning itself with Georgescu, arranging protests in his favour.[82]
Simion won the first round of the 2025 presidential election on 4 May with 41% of the vote, losing the runoff on 18 May to Independent candidate Nicușor Dan with 46.4% against Dan's 53.6%.[83]
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Ideology
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The party claims it is a centre-right,[84] patriotic,[85] and Christian democratic party.[86]
AUR is young as a party, but it didn't come out of nowhere. It brings together some people whose history is linked to the late period of communism. Its candidates are experts in propaganda, intellectuals with more or less open sympathy for legionnaires and legionary or pro-legionary intellectuals, businessmen and itinerant politicians who wander from one radical party to another.
According to the party's website, AUR's ultimate goal is to achieve the unification of all Romanians "wherever they are located, in Bucharest, Iași, Timișoara, Cernăuți, Timoc, Voivodina, Italy, or Spain", while wanting to unite Romania and Moldova together, as well as land with Romanian speakers in neighboring countries.[88] The party has been called irredentist.[28] The website names four pillars for the party: family, nation, Christian faith, and liberty.[39][48] The party characterises its members as "the defenders of the Church".[53] It is opposed to "gender ideology" and believes that a nation has no chance of surviving "unless it cultivates the original pattern of the classic family".[40]
The party's representatives became popular on social media as a result of their positioning against measures taken by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading members, such as Șoșoacă (later expelled), gained thousands of followers. AUR has been described as supporting "anti-medicine, anti-vaccination" rhetoric.[48] This accusation was rejected by George Simion, president of AUR, claiming that the party supports the "freedom of choice".[89] The party's manifesto opposes secularism and condemns atheism, and claims that Christians are persecuted in Romania.[42] The party has been critical of the impact of the local autonomy of Hungarians in Romania on the rights of ethnic Romanians in the centre of the country (where the Hungarians are the majority),[40] leading to accusations of being Magyarophobic.[10] The latter accusation was rejected by the president of AUR,[90] and the party denounced the media, accusing media outlets of spreading false information about its campaign.[citation needed]
Simion has cited Law and Justice and Fidesz, the ruling parties in Poland and Hungary respectively, as some of his models.[91][92]
Despite this, AUR has also expressed deep criticism of Fidesz, stating that it would not join the same group in the European Parliament as Fidesz, due to its claims on Romanian territory.[93] However, AUR later reversed its stance, expressing openness to Fidesz joining the European Conservatives and Reformists.[94]
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AUR wishes to position Romania as a leader in central and eastern Europe within the European Union and to integrate the Republic of Moldova into Romania,[5][6][95] whilst also being Eurosceptic.[6][25] The party is pro-NATO and views the integration of Moldova into Romania as strengthening NATO's eastern flank.[40]
The party also takes a strongly pro-Israel stance, supporting the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank,[37] which are illegal under international law.[96] It supports the Serbian stance on the political status of Kosovo, considering Kosovo to be part of Serbia.[97]
By 2023, the party had become critical of Romanian military support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War, suggesting that the war is "not ours". AUR also criticised the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania, and Simion has been banned from entering Ukraine.[98] Nevertheless, the party leadership is critical of relations with Russia, with Simion calling for the expulsion of the Russian Ambassador and closing Russian consulates in Romania following Russian threats against Romania in December 2023.[99]
Simion has called for Western nations to "stop exporting wars", suggesting that the downfall of the "strong Syrian state" during the Syrian Civil War had increased illegal immigration.[100]
AUR wishes to ensure Romania's self-sufficiency in energy, the prosecution of those deemed responsible for mismanaged post-Communist privatisation projects, and a fight against illegal logging by banning the export of non-processed wood.[91] Additionally, AUR wishes to reform and modernise the education system, with a focus on reducing the overhead of political administration in order to improve the quality and the availability of education in Romania.[citation needed] The party has a senate, which is equivalent to the National Executive Committee of other Romanian parties such as the PSD, the National Liberal Party (PNL), and the Save Romania Union (USR).[101]
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Leadership
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Electoral history
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Romania
Legislative elections
Notes:
1 1 senator and 4 deputies from NR were elected on AUR's list[102]
Local elections
National results
Mayor of Bucharest
Presidential elections
1 Independent candidate endorsed by AUR in the second round, which was ultimately not held
European Parliament elections
Note:
1 AUR Alliance members: AUR (5 MEPs), PNRC (1 MEP) and the other party members did not achieved any mandates (ARN, PRR and BUN).
AUR (Republic of Moldova)
Legislative elections
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See also
References
Further reading
External links
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