08/05/2025
When angry men go to vote
Le Monde Diplomatique went off the rails just before the presidential elections in Romania with an acerbic attack against Simion, warning Romania and Europe that a Simion win would transform Romania into an “autarchy.” Calling Simion an “ultra nationalist with fascist tendencies,” the author treaded the same beaten path already taken many times over by other leftist and progressive journalists and commentators. See, Les Roumains entre deux autoritarismes: https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2025/05/CASSONNET/68363
If the progressive elite had a reason to be worried last week, now they have an even greater reason to be concerned, while Romania’s voters have a reason to celebrate. Simion won the first round of the elections with a stunning 41% of the votes, in a heavily packed 9-person race. Which means Simion is almost sure to be Romania’s next president.
Lesson learned: when angry people go to vote, get out of the way! When angry people go to vote, things happen!
But what were the people all mad about?
Sunday’s elections had little to do with Simion as such. Rather, they spoke loudly about the citizens’ dissatisfaction with Romania’s and Europe’s elites and with national frustrations which had simmered for some time. Simion – bright, young, and articulate, was simply the man who voiced their grievances and the vehicle which citizens used to topple the old regime.
Their grievances exacerbated over more than a generation. A long time that is, during which they were ignored, marginalized and bashed by Europe and Romania’s elites, and vilified also by their mercenaries - the mass media. A mass media which the European Union financed to instill hatred and scorn toward the common people. At least that is what the people of Romania felt. But the greatest peril they perceived, particularly over the course of last year, was the threat to their democracy and freedom.
Make no mistake, though Romania’s democracy is young, Romanians have always jealously protected it and have gone to the mat to keep it. Romania is the only country in Europe in the last 80 years (with the exception of 1956 Hungary) where thousands of people died fighting (in 1989) for freedom and democracy.
Romania only gained its independence in May 1877. Its civil society building efforts spanned a relatively short period of time. World War I destroyed much of the political system and after World War II democracy was erased. In December 1989 Romania toppled communism and, somewhat akin to Sisyphus, its people started anew and set out to rebuild their civil society, democracy, and the rule of law. They occasionally stumbled but stayed the course.
Ten to fifteen years ago they were in the streets by the hundreds of thousands fighting to protect the rule of law and democracy which at that time was threatened by the social-democrats under the authoritarian thumb of P M Liviu Dragnea. Europe did not care. While Europe’s elite and the European Parliament expended much energy to heap scorn on Poland and Hungary for practicing “illiberal” democracies, the same elite and institution were turning a blind eye to the political tragedies unfolding in Romania.
The struggle for Romania’s democracy culminated on May 4. Opinion polls gave Simion 30% of the votes, only to be proven wrong after the polls closed at 9 PM. The high score Simion received is a reflection of, among others, the ethos of Romania’s citizenry for democracy and integrity in the political system. Indeed, Romania had become a corruptocracy for quite some time.
Romania’s elite judicially subverted its democracy in the fall and winter of 2024 when it disqualified Diana Sosoaca from running for president, claiming she was unfit because of her “extremist” views. On December 6 Romania’s Constitutional Court vacated millions of lawful votes when it decided that the winner of the first round, Calin Georgescu, was also “an extremist.” Romanians were shocked. Even if they did not agree with the candidates, they operated under the belief that the Supreme Law of the Land treats everyone equally regardless of political opinion. But while Romania was shocked, Brussels remained silent. Romania’s voters noticed the silence.
In March, Romania’s Constitutional Court furthered judicial subversion of democracy when it disqualified, for the second time, both Sosoaca and Georgescu, from running for president. People took note once more, while Brussels chose silence. The Venice Commission warned Romania about its slouch toward judicial tyranny twice, in January and March, but Romania’s political elite continued to press its thumb on the scales of power in favor of autarchy.
People became frustrated. Angry. Simion challenged the gaffes of the political elite and pledged to restore democracy in Romania. His message was sincere and well articulated, while the candidates of the political establishment avoided the topic altogether. Romania’s democratic deficit did not seem to interest them at all.
In the end, scores of angry and frustrated citizens went to vote, possessed of a holy form of anger, one directed against what they perceived to be the corruption of evil-doers. It was an anger akin to the anger Steinbeck described in Grapes of Wrath, one set not on destruction but on rebuilding what the political locusts of Romania have devoured for the last 35 years. An anger akin to the anger of the British commoner who pushed the UK out of the EU in 2016, and of the ordinary American who propelled Trump to the White House in 2024.
Peter Costea
En kiosques // par Florentin Cassonnet (mai 2025)
