If you were hoping this Christmas for more clarity on the rules of the “rules-based international order,” you’re in luck. Recent events in Romania provide plenty. Judges there canceled the results of the recent election in Romania because a candidate who favored better ties with Russia won. The decision was based on bogus intel from the state intelligence services, and naturally Brussels and Washington backed the move. While the EU has for years used all sorts of pressure and threats to get member states to continue to support Project Ukraine, the overturning of the election in Romania marks a clear escalation of tactics and is likely a harbinger of what’s to come.
Let’s start with a timeline of events in Romania and then look at why the country is so important to NATO Black Sea plans, as well as the larger significance of the election cancellation. I’ll be focusing primarily on the involvement of actors outside Romania as I’m not all that familiar with the country’s political scene, but I think we have at least a few experts in the commentariat who can hopefully offer more domestic perspective.
Timeline
The weeks running up to the election: a campaign called #BalanceAndIntegrity begins on TikTok. Roughly 130 influencers follow a similar script to make videos describing qualities of a future unnamed president. Some of the influencers do, however, write in the comments of the video: “Călin Georgescu.”
Nov. 24: The presidential election. Georgescu — a relative unknown who runs on a Christian conservative, economic populist and non-interventionist policy towards Project Ukraine — surprisingly comes out on top. Disaffected working class voters back him strongly as he wins more than 2 million votes (23 percent) in the first round. As no candidate achieved an absolute majority, a second round was to be held on Dec. 8.
Nov. 28: Romania’s Supreme Country Defense Council (CSAT) announces that “cyber attacks with the aim of influencing the correctness of the electoral process” took place and, separately, that “a candidate for the presidential elections benefited from a massive exposure due to the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform granted him by not marking him as a political candidate.”
Despite CSAT alleging that “some state and non-state actors, in particular the Russian Federation,” were behind cyber attacks, Romania’s Special Telecommunication Service (STS), a military agency which is tasked with securing the communication infrastructure for the electoral process, said that no cyberattack was spotted during the first round of the presidential elections.
Dec 5: The secret service of the Ministry of Interior submits a note to the Constitutional Court of Romania (CSAT) in which it says TikTok campaigns were presented to the public as a “campaign aimed at raising awareness about the importance of voting” but in reality were supportive for Georgescu.
Dec. 6: Just two days ahead of the second round vote Georgescu looked sure to win, the Constitutional Court of Romania annuls the results of the first round of the election, claiming that a Russian influence operation impacted the vote. A new election will supposedly happen in the Spring.
Dec. 16: The European Commission announces it is opening a formal proceeding against TikTok over its role in Romania’s election. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen takes the rare step of publicly commenting on an investigation saying the following:
“Following serious indications that foreign actors interfered in the Romanian presidential elections by using TikTok, we are now thoroughly investigating whether TikTok has violated the Digital Services Act [DSA] by failing to tackle such risks.”
Dec. 19: The 27 leaders of the European Union meet in Brussels. The summit is dominated by Ukraine, but Romanian President Klaus Iohannis who is staying on as president due to the annulled election is welcomed with open arms and offers his insight into the Russian menace:
Russian election meddling “nearly impossible” to prove, says Romanian president, who warns: “All countries are exposed to this risk”https://t.co/IK1HOtfVzH @valentinapop in Bucharest for @ft
— Henry Foy (@HenryJFoy) December 19, 2024
EU leaders thanked Iohannis for his warnings, and everyone went back to making bold proclamations about “supporting” Ukraine and the threats posed by Putin evidenced by his TikTok wizardry in Romania.
There was a problem, however. A bombshell Dec. 21 report from the Romanian investigative media outlet Snoop.ro revealed that the TikTok campaign allegedly orchestrated by the Russians that threw Romanian democracy out of whack was actually funded by the centrist National Liberal Party. To sum up:
So let me get this straight, Romanian government, the pro-EU National Liberal Party financed the TikTok campaign to amplify their rival Georgescu, and when he started winning, then the same party claimed this was done by ‘Russia’ and the courts annulled the elections based on…
— Sopo Japaridze (@sopjap) December 22, 2024
The firm hired by the PNL, Kensington Communication, is now saying it will file a criminal complaint for judicial authorities to investigate the possible diversion of its campaign in favour of an “extremist” candidate. From a Kensington statement:
“Kensington Communication will file a criminal complaint so that the competent authorities can investigate the hijacking, bot attack and/or cloning of the campaign carried out by Kensington, at the behest of the PNL, carried out through the Fame Up Platform, in favor of an extremist candidate.”
Kensington is owned by Răzvan Săndulescu and Cătălin Dumitru who I’m not turning up much information on. Maybe readers more familiar with the Romanian political landscape can comment.
While the media spent weeks suggesting that the alleged influence operation in Romania was “eerily similar” to alleged Russian campaigns in Ukraine and Moldova, it turns out it’s much closer to the Clinton campaign’s pied piper strategy in 2016, which led to a shock loss and subsequent blaming of Russia for that defeat. And it continues even after being debunked:
If you didn’t hate the corporate client war media enough, Politico continues to push the narrative that Romania itself has already contradicted. pic.twitter.com/RsramEt3NM
— Olga Bazova (@OlgaBazova) December 23, 2024
One key difference, obviously, is that in Romania the election was formerly overturned while in the US Trump was greeted into office by Russiagate.
It’s worth remembering that even though the PNL funded the TikTok campaign and blamed it on Russia there’s still no evidence that it swung the election.
And there’s little attention paid to the economic fallout in Romania from Project Ukraine. While Romania wasn’t hit as hard as other European countries on energy due to its own supplies and ability to continue to import Russian gas via the Turkstream pipeline, the country is still forced to grapple with inflation, Black Sea fishing and tourism difficulties due to the conflict, and higher prices for other products that used to be imported from Russia such as steel products, iron, wood, cement, and paper. Meanwhile, the government in Romania has been pushing the military budget higher.
Romania’s Importance for NATO
The EU, which has already lost so much — it has destroyed its own economy and international standing, restricted freedoms, reordered all its priorities, and has willfully subjected the entire EU project to NATO — continues to double down, and it can all be traced back to Ukraine and Russia.
In this case Georgescu cannot be allowed to win because he takes the common sense approach that confrontation with Moscow does much more harm to Romanians than to Russia.
And Romania is simply too important to NATO and the effort to weaken Russia. Washington and Brussels are already dealing with wayward governments in Hungary and Slovakia, but Romania is a different animal.
Like Hungary and Slovakia it borders Ukraine, and while providing little military support of its own, it is the second most important hub, after Poland. German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has a facility in Satu Mare to repair Western equipment donated to Ukraine.
It also has more geographic importance due to its location on the Black Sea and is a major part of the US strategy there.
The US National Security Council (NSC) is currently working to formalize a Black Sea security and development strategy across government agencies, but the current National Defense Authorization Act already outlines several pillars of that strategy that can effectively be boiled down to “keep Russia and China out and the US and NATO in.”
What that envisions is an arc of “rules-based order” states from the Caspian to the Adriatic that would allow the US to exercise control over the movement of energy and goods through the region, and to the South Caucasus, which is positioned at the intersection of burgeoning East-West and North-South transport corridors. It’s one major part of the US bid for global dominance, which seeks to control key maritime corridors and choke points.
In January, Türkiye, Bulgaria and Romania signed a memorandum of understanding in İstanbul establishing the Mine Countermeasures Naval Group in the Black Sea, which will oversee demining operations. There was hope from some in the West that this could be a way to sidestep Türkiye’s objections to NATO warships sailing into the Black Sea, but that hasn’t happened. Still, Romania faces pressure to build up its naval forces, although that also hasn’t been going well. From the Polish Institute for International Affairs:
Since 1989, Romania has only acquired two, old Type-22 frigates, bought from the UK 20 years ago without missile systems, and a domestically-built corvette in the 1990s. In 2023, Romania bought two minehunters decommissioned from the Royal Navy. Romania is strengthening its neglected navy on an ad hoc basis. It has asked for U.S. help to upgrade the Type-22 frigates and has ordered two H215M surface combatant helicopters for them from Airbus, to be built at the factory in Braşov. It announced the rearmament with NSM missiles of three missile corvettes and the intention to order two patrol vessels in a fast-track procedure from the Galaţi shipyard owned by the Dutch firm Damen. Romania also joined the PESCO programme for the construction of patrol corvettes, which, if successful, means the first vessels would be built after 2030. These measures are intended to fill the gap caused by the cancellation in 2023 of a €1.2 billion programme to build four corvettes and the modernisation of the Type-22 frigates in a Romanian shipyard after the Ministry of Defence failed to agree with the French Naval Group selected in the tender and did not enter into negotiations with Damen, whose offer was second..
Romania is seeking to rebuild its submarine force. It is negotiating with the Naval Group—despite past bad experiences—to build two Scorpène-type submarines in France for around €2 billion. Their commissioning would be a challenge for the Romanian Navy, as it has not had such vessels in the line since 1996, and it would take up to 10 years to rebuild the technical facilities and to train crews.
Romania is also the site of the $2.7 billion expansion of Mihail Kogălniceanu airbase to make it the largest one in Europe. An interesting thought:
The US is preparing to park a giant fleet of military drones on Romania’s Black Sea coast upon completion of NATO’s largest military base in Europe there. Could that be related to large fleets of drones potentially being tested along US coastlines this month? pic.twitter.com/rvLZZdWPuz
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 22, 2024
The US has expanded its military presence in Romania to brigade size, and is pushing for NATO forward defense in Romania to include a multinational combined arms formation focused on the Danube Delta.
On the energy front, Black Sea Oil & Gas, controlled by US private equity firm Carlyle Group LP, launched Romania’s first offshore development in three decades in 2022.
Last year, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and discussed US energy cooperation with Romania. Some highlights:
O’Brien detailed Project Phoenix, a partnership between Romania and the United States designed to increase the region’s energy security. O’Brien said the Development Finance Corporation and Export-Import Bank of the United States signed letters of interest totaling four billion dollars “to deploy a small modular reactor project in Romania.” At the same time, littoral states are working to boost their own energy security, for example with offshore energy projects underway in Bulgarian, Romanian, and Turkish waters. Yet Russia is determined to keep its energy dominance, and with a penchant for malign influence operations, will likely attempt to scuttle the United States’ efforts to help the Black Sea’s littoral states. The United States and its regional allies must be prepared with an effective strategic communications response if Russia unleashes malign influence operations—including a strategic disinformation campaign—designed to stop Project Phoenix. Such campaigns may not be unprecedented, as some European officials suspect (although without clear proof) that Russia helped finance protests against Chevron projects in Lithuania and Romania in the 2010s.
EU Courts and the “Rule of Law”
The EU has long used lawfare, economic sabotage, and threats to bend national elections in its direction. And even if the outcome didn’t go the way Brussels wanted, it usually had enough “tools” as von der Leyen calls them to force the new government to fall in line.
NEW – EU Commission President on the upcoming elections in Italy, where a right-wing victory is expected:
“We will see. If things go in a ‘difficult direction’ – I have spoken about Hungary and Poland – we have tools.” pic.twitter.com/PxtvpXyCua
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 23, 2022
The actions in Romania, however, mark something altogether different. In just a few short years we’ve gone from tools to pressure elected representatives to tools to simply cancel election results because of TikTok videos, and the use of the courts to enforce Brussels’ idea of “democracy” is noteworthy.
The courts throughout EU states play a major role in Brussels exerting control over the bloc and the erosion of sovereignty. The European Commission has the power to cite “rule of law” deficiencies in member states, which can put in jeopardy EU cohesion and recovery funds earmarked for the state in violation. In theory, the warning is supposed to be about democratic standards, corruption, the independence of the judicial system and the safety of journalists. In reality, the threat to cut off some EU funds is used as a form of financial blackmail to keep bloc countries from straying from neoliberal orthodoxy and NATO priorities. We can see evidence of the politicization of “rule of law” in the cases of Hungary and Poland. The Commission used billions in withheld funds earlier this year to bribe Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán into relenting on money he was holding up for Project Ukraine.
Poland’s rule of law problems with Brussels magically disappeared once loyal EU/NATO soldier Donald Tusk was elected prime minister last year — despite nearly identical issues with the media, for example, as under his predecessor.
Ultimately Brussels wants courts that are in line with its idea of democracy and a “Juristocratic” Europe rather than an expression of the “national will.” Over the years Brussels has worked to ensure that more power has been transferred to the courts in EU member states so that we now have the following:
Ran Hirschl, a Yale University graduate and professor of Law and Political science at the University of Toronto, affirms that by transferring an ‘unprecedented amount of power from representative institutions to judiciaries’, Western regimes have established ‘juristocratical’ regimes. These regimes, Hirschl continues, are dominated by a ‘coalition of legal innovators’ determining ‘the timing, extent, and nature of constitutional reforms’ and who, ‘while they profess support for democracy (…), attempt to insulate policymaking from the vicissitudes of democratic politics’.
The fact that these courts were used in such a blatant anti-democratic nature in Romania marks a major escalation from Brussels that previously relied on more discreet pressure campaigns.
Lawfare, economic sabotage, color revolutions, and threats. Across the EU — even in the bloc’s biggest countries like France, Italy, and Germany — efforts to subvert the voters’ will have been steadily increasing as economic problems mount and voter anger rises with governments that continue to dig deeper by clinging to the centrist dogma of neoliberalism and transatlanticism.
🧵From annulling elections to banning political parties, Europe is in a state of deep political malaise.
In this series, MintPress highlights six signs that democracy in Europe is beginning to crumble, citing examples from Romania, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/swY22SvvA7
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) December 19, 2024
Gaining ground across the EU are parties that question the wisdom of Project Ukraine and ongoing belligerence towards Russia, China and whoever else Washington says is on the enemy list.
And more draconian measures are needed to keep the wolves at bay.
Of course, Western politicians can’t admit failure, and the US wants the sanctions in place, so they’ll have to suck it up. But even more importantly, acknowledging the damage the sanctions are doing to Europe might mean the end of the proxy war, and we can’t have that. Yet?
— Kit Klarenberg 🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 (@KitKlarenberg) December 11, 2024
It’s entirely possible that Romania is just the start of annulled elections as the neoliberal war champions who call themselves the “center” would no doubt love the power to cancel elections wherever they see fit.
Trial Run for Upcoming Elections in Europe?
Politico announces as much in a Dec. 17 piece. Under the subhead “Germany is up next” the author casually tosses in the following:
But the real nightmare scenario that European Parliament members voiced concerns about on Tuesday is for disinformation to go rogue when Germans head to the polls in February…Earlier in December, the Commission ordered TikTok to retain all data related to election risk management for four months, starting Nov. 24 and running through March — capturing what will happen in the run-up to the German election.
“Election risk management.” Is the EU really worried about the content on TikTok and its lack of political content labels or is it more of a useful scapegoat when democracy goes wrong in the eyes of the Brussels centrists?
It would be a shocker if the political upstarts in Germany — the Alternative for Germany (AfD) on the right and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) on the left — are able to pull off a result resembling Georgescu’s. Here’s a look at current polling in Germany:
That’s a daunting deficit to overcome, but February is a long ways off, and who knows if and by how much polls might be accidentally or deliberately undercounting AfD and BSW support. The AfD has the threat of a ban hanging over its head purportedly due to Nazi elements in its ranks, but one look at who the EU and US supports in Ukraine tells you that the real reason is because it wants peaceful ties with Russia because that’s in the interest of most Germans.
The Romania election is maybe the most egregious example yet of hypocrisy from the EU, which describes its conflict with Russia and “de-risking” from China as a battle between democracy and authoritarianism. It comes at the same time Brussels and Washington are struggling to orchestrate a color revolution in Georgia in order to overturn the recent election results there and force the country’s citizens to sacrifice in the Western plutocrats’ efforts to weaken Russia.
No doubt Georgia President and French spook Salome Zourabichvili who is saying she will not leave office when her term is up Dec. 29 will point to Romania as evidence of how democracy works in the EU — and should work in Georgia. That’s because Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis is staying in office for now due to the annulled election.
Meanwhile, Ursula celebrates Romanian democracy:
35 years ago, Romanians stood up for the right to choose their own destiny.
Many gave their lives so that their children could be free and live in democracy.
Today, Romania and Europe remember their sacrifice. pic.twitter.com/YB7Q0h6cG9
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 22, 2024
Whether she’s clueless or simply enjoys rubbing salt in fresh wounds matters little for Romanians and all Europeans who are having their rights steadily snatched away from them by Ursula and her benefactors.
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Excellent summary of the state of things in Europe. It is not only Ukraine. Had a long talk today with a person who is generally against all “radicals” and who more or less supports the government here in Germany. The talk was about how private equity is taking over GP practices, Ophthalmologists, independent orthopedics a.s.o. The population is basically being viewed by PE as so much cattle. Health is not even an afterthought to these people. Senseless but lucrative surgeries, pills instead of talks a.s.o. There is the growing realization that our governments and social institutions are being taken over unaccountable global institutions or nameless capital.
There was always something of the above but in the last years this has accelerated. I live in the industrial Southwest of Germany and although the happenings in Romania are being downplayed I know as a fact that in the big industrial plants here the anger is growing exponentially. People are much more aware than you might think. The legacy media does its best to explain away what happened in Romania but a lot of people – not the academic upper middle class but everybody else – know whats up. I believe they will continue and probably annul or somehow void elections here as well. That is until there are mass demonstrations.
The
plantationgarden owners (DJG R-Czar dixit) and their overseers/foremen tightening the control on every aspect eh?You are way out of date. Yves will know that a Harvard MBA built the largest private owner of hospitals in Germany – Asklepios-Rhön Group and his former partner built a group called Helios which owns hospitals across Europe through Fresenius
ATOS is owned by a private equity group in London
The only reason Apotheke have not been rolled up by Walgreens is a German law restricting Apotheke to ownership of 3 shops
The privatisation of Kommunalkrankenhäuser stems from a peculiar German system that investment in hospitals is 50:50 between Gesetzliche Krankenkassen und Kommunalpolitik and the politicians fail to cough up. Private health insurers pay nothing towards hospitals and politicians have private insurance
Truth is there is no money. A dermatologist
is allowed 7 minutes with a patient and paid €11. An MRI scan gets €146 from GKV but €450 from private insurer. Only rationing of health care permits GPs to break even
Sure enough I don´t know thse details as well as you do. What is happening though the last years is that formerly independent doctors are being bought out and now everybody is forced to notice. In a hospital you don´t notice as much but at the “retail” level it is much more visible.
Thank you for this Conor. Given how weak was the excuse given in Romania to cancel the results and ongoing elections one has to wonder whether in Romania the populace is buying this or is very angry about the cancellation of democracy on behalf of external geopolitical interests. With US meddling in democracy, disguised as Putin meddling, at the end what you have is anything but democratic choice. Poised to be sided within one side of the geopolitical equation no matter you like it or not. Not expert (by any chance) on Romanian politics but I have read that the younger voters are more than angry with this move.
According to some information (in Spanish) a US ex-ambassador appeared repeatedly in the Romanian media criticizing Georgescu and the current ambassadress made a show of visiting the Mihail Kogălniceanu aerial base during the elections. According to a Romanian political commenter, Bogdan Chirieac (qualified as pro-Russian by Westeners), the discontent among the populace is poised to increase with Iohannis perceived now as an autocrat.
One can gather that with Trump’s electoral victory many in Europe have become very much aware of rising electoral risks and the PMC will almost certainly try to put a tight control, not only on the narrative, but on whatever that moves and thinks outside the so called rules-based order. I have seen too many articles about this in media like El Pais.
From what I can somewhat indirectly deduce (Mrs. Socialist has a Romanian colleague) is that democracy – if it ever existed – died in Romania much earlier and all that people have left is an extremely cynical attitude.
For example, the colleague mentioned did not bother to vote at all, “they’re crooks everyone, anyway” and actually feels validated by the annulment. Se thinks “they” should start telling people for whom to vote, “just like in the olden days”, and stop with the pretend.
That would explain why “they” could take the international anti-misinformation trend that one decisive step further and cancel elections outright. I have a hard time seeing it happen in quite this brazen form in most other EU member nations for now. But when the field is already this well-prepared, it must have been very tempting to push things further under a pretext that the rest of the “West” could not find much fault with.
Ignacio. Buon Natale. Thanks for your comment, which is on the mark.
I did some poking around about Razvan Sandolescu:
From this Romanian site (which I know nothing about):
https://insociety.ro/stories/razvan-sandulescu-dupa-22-de-ani-de-consultanta-politica-inca-nu-m-am-plictisit/
I got a paragraph that I dumped into Google Translate: “Răzvan Săndulescu is the founder of Kensington Communications, one of the most important political consulting firms in Romania. Former journalist, political communication trainer, Răzvan Săndulescu has 22 years of political consulting. In the period 2000-2002 he was an adviser to the president of the PNL, Valeriu Stoica, and between 2002-2004 he coordinated the PR department of the PNL. Member of the campaign staff of the candidate for the Presidency, Traian Băsescu, in the 2004 elections. He is active in dozens of domestic and international electoral campaigns. In the last campaign for Bucharest City Hall, Kensington Communication led the campaign of Nicușor Dan.”
So he is from the “liberal” (conservative) party, PNL, as mentioned by Conor Gallagher. In a sense, there is no surprise here.
I would also add that the entire country of Yugoslavia was canceled for “external geopolitical interests.” Romania, being somewhat more unified, and somewhat poorer, is now being left intact and subverted by NATO and the EU. Fatto Quotidiano also remarked recently that it is the third most corrupt member of the EU. So plenty of money is likely to be flying around. In short, the weak central European countries that were taken into the EU without much pretence have been turned into a bunch of colonies of Germany, the Netherlands, and the EU itself. I’m thinking of Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria. Even Poland, which is desperate to export its economic problems.
Further pressure is going to be applied using the current fiscal mechanism (based heavily on Mario Draghi’s economic fantasies):
https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/implications-european-unions-new-fiscal-rules
But the Lady Cerberus of Ursula van der Leyen, Kaja Kallas, and Roberta Metsola has this all under control, you see, whether you like it or not. Economic policy will be used to subvert constitutional guarantees of rights.
VDL reminds me of the Fisherman’s Wife in the Grimm’s fairy tale.
https://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/the_fisherman_and_his_wife
This cannot end well.
“Romania, being somewhat more unified”.
Romania is a unitary state, not a federation. It has 6-7% of Magyar ethnics who have been living there foe centuries, and are mostly located in the center of the country, with a splater in west (Bihor & Satu Mare).
Romanians are all Orthodox of Greek rites, with some Greek-Catholics in the west, but of not much import.
The politics in Romania have always been slimy (outside the socialist period, when there was only one party and the focus was mostly on deliverables to the population) and there is a certain crasness and lack of luster when you listen and watch TV political shows in Romanian TV channels. I charactherize this period as the period of “Ciocoi noi” (An early Romanian Novel, The Old and New Ciocoi (Dinu Păturitza represents the new ciocoi, the type of the upstart, who enriches himself through dishonest means, his portrait being presented on the very first page of the novel. Along with the physical portrait, the psychological traits, cunning and ambition are also presented. Ambition supported by an exceptional will is the fundamental trait of Păturitza, the ambition to succeed makes him flattering, servile, hypocritical, cunning. The art of dissimulation in Păturitza reaches perfection. He takes advantage of Tuzluc’s kindness, of the trust given, sending him to school as a son, thus thinning his mind, he acquires the art of hypocrisy and perfidy, bringing Tuzluc to the woodcutter).
A TikTok clip with Ciolacu, another candidate, showing him making his morning coffee in his kitchen, uttering onomatopeic sounds, unshaven and unkempt, in trainers (the gold chain hanging at the neck is missing) is a grotesque caricature of a new ciocoi. These people are semi-imbecils.
From what I have seen as comments on various postings, there is a lot of seething, while the defenders of the cancellations now cannot say but Putin puppet as a defense.
My sister feeds me with news, and she is really seething. She claims that Calinescu wasn’t an unknown and she knew about him. Wasnt mainstream, but not unknown.
Now we see that the decision to cancel elections has been brazenly kept and I think this will infuriate people even more. And if some dialogue btw Russia is started and progresses by the replay, Calinescu will be vindicated and there might be even more support for him.
So basically, the Romanians have traded taking direction from Moscow to now taking direction from Brussels.
Given that the country is not far removed from its last Ceaucescu moment, one might wonder if TikTok might be the least of the EU regime’s worries.
The Romanian people donat buy this explanation. It is also important to know that there are the European Commission and the German Federal Government who have been puppeted Iohannis from his very begining in his presidential mandate. Except the former US ambasador, Adrian Zukerman who has no official capacity but is only a real estate investor here, this corp d’Etat had no support from the US offocials.
Mihail Kogălniceanu airbase a lot harder to say than Danang air base!
Merry Christmas to all!
Great post, Conor! Democracy in Europe! Sir Larry Siedentop died earlier this year. Just yesterday I was thinking about his take on the likelihood of democracy in the EU and what he would have to say today. I doubt he would be surprised. A personal appreciation is here. His Inventing the Individual is superb.
He says (according to your link) that only a EU-level constitution might possibly save democracy in Europe. The one that was proposed before was probably the weirdest of all constitutions ever written. The highest value was “free market competition” mentioned more than 100 times in the text. As if that was something that could be considered a shared value by itself (?) and must be hard written as the principal driving force/value of the EU. It would be exactly the opposite of a shared value. Being competitive, having an advantage, is something that by definition cannot be shared, very much on the contrary and Constitutions, silly me, should be about the commonalities.
Just another illustration of the Neoliberal definition of citizen: Consumer.
Arthur Salter and Jean Monnet conceived the European Community to obstruct democracy in terms of popular accountability. It was based on Plato‘s Republic.
The plan was always to expand control through National parliaments so the frog boiled slowly.
If you notice police uniforms in EU became blue. There was no EU Directive but the Interior Ministers at Council of Ministers all agreed to implement blue for police. Germany went from green and tan to blue with US style uniforms. A more aggressive policing followed.
Free Movement of Labour was used to implement gay marriage to facilitate labour mobility ! It was how EU Law is expanded on flimsy pretexts to acquire more centralised power – then vaccines – then defence procurement
The EU has a Brezhnev Doctrine of „normalisation“ – no Prague Spring permitted. Eventually NATO will administer all EU States and a US General will act as Shogun
Thanks for this! Very good write up!
This article helpsed me to realized just how unwavering The West is in its goal to destroy Russia. It also raised questions to myself that each NC reader might ask themselves: 1). Based on what The West is doing in Romania, just how much “peace” is their for Russia to “lose” if she doesn’t negotiate with The West for a less than perfect security arrangement or one that depends on Western agreement? 2). Alternately, just how much security is their for Russia to lose if she waivers in seeking the most optimal military outcome? Keep in mind any arrangement Trump makes can be overturned, and assuming Trump will or is able to make an arrangement that benefits Russia is a leap in itself. The US is preparing to militarize Romania to the max. If Trump interferes IMO he might be JFK’d. It is in Russia’s interest to terminate this militarization of Romania, with force if necessary. The West is at eternal war against Russia.
Compliments of the season!
Great questions.
> 1). Based on what The West is doing in Romania, just how much “peace” is [there] for Russia to “lose” if she doesn’t negotiate with The West for a less than perfect security arrangement or one that depends on Western agreement?
None.
The war with Ukraine exposed the truth – Minsk agreement was merely a head fake (via globaltimes.cn), and the West never intended to negotiate for peace in good faith. This is the nature of the unwavering quest to destroy Russia.
2). Alternately, just how much security is [there] for Russia to lose if she waivers in seeking the most optimal military outcome?
All.
As the year winds down to its last week, I will confess that I am surprised that Russia has not done more thus far to simply END this. Ukraine is only strong because of Western meddling which the West must do indirectly. Turning Ukraine into a smoldering stump removes the ability to attack by proxy. It’s amazing how US/Israel//West can do what they’re doing in Syria, and the collective consent-manufacturing-media-industrial-complex just gets their pom-poms out, but if Russia does a week of “shock and awe” sorties over Ukraine to put paid to the Zelensky experiment, we’ll be inundated for months with take-it-up-a-notch “Bad man Putin” reporting from every billionaire-owned outlet.
We are watching the head eat its’ tail. The ancient story in Genesis of the subtle yet ‘successful’ serpent entice the woman who lures the man to overreach.
“With our eyes blindfolded we walk round the mill of life, always treading the same circular path and returning to the same things …we never cease to go round in a circle.” St Gregory of Nyssa
Blind we most certainly are, to insible realities, and doomed we may be, as a planetary species, but that quote sent me scurrying for an antidote. And here it is, also from Gregory:
“We make Idols of our concepts, but Wisdom is born of wonder.”
We are not doomed, we are (and clearly our ‘world leaders’ are magnified examples) simply limited without Wisdom.
Excellent quote and many thanks to you to provide a great reminder to myself to not overreach.
Every border you cross eastwards from the English Channel represents a diminution of democratic accountability. Jury trials end at Dover. Independent judiciary follows a similar trajectory
When you get to Romania or Bulgaria you are back in 1930 with Iron Guard. Poland had a dictatorship from 1926a-1990 of varying flavours and is uneasy with fractious politics.
Tusk has operated quite a coup machine but no one comments. Romania is corrupt to the core and Bulgaria a gangster state.
Moldova is a joke state.
EEC started with The Six and probably should have stayed there. Now it is the Austro-Hungarian Empire cruising for a bruising just as the Ottomans fire up their acquisitions machine
With the “trials” of Salmond and Murray, and the way the Crown has blocked all possible evidence and actual fact finding from the investigations to deaths of Litvinenko and Sturgess, and how Assange was held years in captivity without any sentence or even charges, I wouldn’t score the UK system very high as independent judiciary.
And it would be useful to see if the Skripals are still alive and, if they are, to hear their version of events leading up to and following the Monty Pythonesque barrage of lies with which the UK authorities “explain” the Salisbury fiasco to an increasingly incredulous world.
I seriously doubt the Skripals will ever see the light of day again.
Perhaps not but Scotland has a different judicial system based on Civil Law if Roman Law like the European Continent. It is different from Law of England & Wales
Assange was charged by Starmer as DPP and held for skipping bail. The Judiciary cannot overturn Statute Law and Blair Extradition Act with USA gives little scope to judges. The creative way they used US First Amendment on Appeal was the only route in such legislation
US judges may ignore Congress de facto but the English Supreme Court exists under Act of Parliament and is not Supreme
Fact is Merkel made one of her MPs Head of Constitutional Luft and had them found to dinner to discuss the case involving her extra constitutional behaviour
Hi Paul you seem to believe in the greatness of St George and Merry Old England but to claim England has an independent judiciary is a bit of a stretch. As you pointed out the highest court in England only exists due to an act of parliament. Therefore the government (which controls the parliament) can change the court whenever it wishes. That’s the reason many countries that derive their governmental systems from England decided to give their court systems power independent of the government.
“When you get to Romania or Bulgaria you are back in 1930 with Iron Guard.”
That is really not the case. I have been just past spring in Romania and it was far from an Iron Guard atmosphere. And two years ago there was, among my former college graduates, a tremendose debate about the war, Romania, the west, etc. The sovereignists won because had arguments. Such a debate is impossible in Canada.
So maybe you should travel a bit more, for real.
UK is big joke.. Assange case.
This and similar arguments do not prove the argument.
The fact that the UK will engage in abuses with important cases does not prove the contention that things get worse the further east you go. The UK can still be the cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry.
Iron Guard it isn’t, neither in Bulgaria nor in Romania. No need for that, the poor, unwashed masses are busy feeling helpless and excluded from decision-making. What it is is corruption, well-supported by the EU and by queen VDL herself. After all, the European People’s Party needs majority in in the EP, in order to ensure the reign of VDL and to secure the colonial status of the East. The West gets raw resources, cheap labor and markets, the East gets an updated, liberalized version of serfdom, with bad educational, health and social safety systems.
But hey, we get the ultimate in identity politics: we get to call ourselves “European” and to live with “Euro-Atlantic values,” whatever they are. Little wonder, then, that the populace feels lied to and cheated, because it is. In such condition “Russian interference” is hardly needed to produce Euro-scepticism, though it is needed by the elites to explain away the results of their own policies, incompetence and grifterism.
That, my friend, are Bulgaria and Romania.
Merry Christmas, OIFVet!
Fellow Bulgarian here, fully agree with your summary. Some time ago (it may be 2-3 years by now!) we exchanged comments here about connecting offline via Lambert, but I didn’t follow up right away and forgot… Glad to see your comment today, I will reach out through Lambert this time for sure.
All the best.
Merry Christmas! Sure thing, hope Lambert or Yves will connect us :)
Actually, you can look me up on Twitter, @venzie_m. Easy-peasy :)
Great, thank you! Will DM you there.
I emailed Lambert already but will ask him to stand down, he does too much as it is :)
What a great article and comments today. Thanks to you all.
Reminds me of the “repeat” of the state elections a few years ago (2020) in Thuringia, were a free democrat (FDP) candidate was elected to become Prime Minister with some (but decisive) votes from the AfD. All hell broke loose, and our beloved chancellor Merkel back then demanded the immediate “repeat” of that election (at a press conference during a state visit to South Africa). And it did get repeated, the election, although it was perfectly democratic, and no one criticised the election process as such. It was just the “wrong outcome”. Years later (2022), the federal constitutional court of Germany condemned Merkel for unlawfully restrict the “equal chances of the opposition” and her duty to be neutral towards the election processes in the federal states. But hey, back then she was already out of office and nobody cared any more…
I believe one should go back much earlier than the recent election shenanigans in Romania, Germany, and elsewhere to observe the dismantling of democracy in Europe.
Case in points: the various referenda that took place in the past.
1) Referendum on the EU Constitution. As soon as that treaty was rejected in the Netherlands and France, the ratification process was interrupted, including in countries where referenda were to be held, and the process re-launched in a form that made sure popular opinion would have no impact on the final decision.
2) Except in Ireland, where a referendum was compulsory. When the Irish answered “incorrectly”, they had to vote again to make sure the new EU organization was accepted. Again, politicians will never take “no” for an answer.
3) A similar procedure was attempted regarding the compensations of losses of British and Dutch banks following the financial melt-down in Iceland. The voters rejected the loan guarantee packages twice. The Dutch and British government then attempted to get their way via judicial means.
4) Netherlands introduced the possibility of a consultative referendum in 2015. In 2016, a referendum was demanded regarding the EU-Ukraine association agreement — which treaty was rejected by 61% of the voters. After a period of dithering, the government decided to ignore the result and ratify the treaty anyway. A second referendum was held regarding a new intelligence and security services act — which law was also rejected. Again, the government passed the law anyway after minimal modifications. This was the second and last referendum to be held; by then, Dutch politicians were enough pissed off by the popular opinion and had already repelled the law instituting the possibility of a referendum.
So there were already plenty of signs that European politicians abhor democracy — rule by the people. I think that the most significant manifestation of that detestation is what happened in the Netherlands: a consultative referendum is already too much — politicians really do not even want to hear an opinion that differs from what they have prejudged to be the “right way”.
Going by memory here, so someone correct me if I’m off a little, but there was also the referendum in Greece in the first half of the 2010s. The Greeks said “Oxi” to austerity measures, but were overruled by the Troika and Mario Draghi who said “No avgolemono for you”.
Indeed, and there was another situation in Switzerland, where voters had already rejected the acquisition of the Gripen fighter aircraft in a referendum. When it appeared that the government would then go for the F-35, a constitutional initiative was launched and gathered enough signatures to be voted upon. But before this happened, the government rushed the law committing Switzerland to buy the F-35, thus disabling the purpose of the popular initiative (which was never held).
When a truly dictatorial figure comes up and snatches power from the existing elites, all cries and laments will be in vain: people will sneer at “democracy” as a swindle from arrogant, unaccountable, deaf politicians who ignore the wishes of the population and do whatever they (or their plutocratic principals) want. Who wants to die for EU general directorates, the ECB, or any of the European “representative republics”?
Irish Constitution requires referendum on constitutional matters – Irish rejected Lisbon Treaty
Told to re-run it with offer of tax cuts for right choices
Any best of all – having destroyed Kemmerich by having his children harassed at school and a campaign of physical intimidation………the new regime in 2024 in Thuringia has a CDU deadbeat Mario Voigt with a coalition propped up by Ramelow and having a BSW Minister who was a Border Guard in the Feliks Dzerzhinski Regt of the Stasi
A man banned from office by Ramelow when he was in the SED „Linke“ Party before splitting off into the purer Communist BSW faction
Thuringia is just like GDR with Block Party of SED with CDU and SPD .. AfD is excluded from cabal meetings which create a „parliament within the parliament“
I wonder if there is anything like The School of the Americas in the EU/NATO? I ask this because I am seeing the EU drifting towards the same tactics as the United States has used and the school was used to train the militaries of a number of countries in to control their country’s population. Be warned that the Wikipedia page is very censored to where it is an excellent example of lying by omission although, as far as I can tell, not by commission; the school’s graduates were involved in all the major wars, coups, and many atrocities in the Americas during and after the Cold War.
No need.
The old European Guard is much more right wing and willing to curtail “democracy” than what is available in the US. European aristocracies ruled in Europe with an iron fist at least until after WWI. The partisans against German occupiers brought some more democracy and backbone (the old guard all cooperated with the nazis, not much different than the situation in South Korea).
The unrolling of the safety net in Europe will proceed apeace, with an increase in militarization. But the level of incompetence will likely diminish one with no results for the other. For the next 25 years, I don’t see anything improving. Only when things will approach bottom, true stirring will happen.
We don’t have 25 years. The EU is forced by the US to raise defense spending to 3.5%. Canada will increase defense spending too after relentless pressure from NATO. China is planning to build 1000 new nuclear weapons until 2030. We live in dark times, things will unroll much faster.
We’re calling it “democracy” but–of course–the countries of the former USSR that entered the EU have had their own deep disappointment with the managed bourgeois “democracy” that (for what?) half a century had prevailed, post-WWII in western Europe. And by manage we mean–often–completely manipulated, as when the CIA insured that Communist or far-left governments never took the helm, “democracy” completely thwarted in Greece, Italy, and Spain, an upstart working class (when it did assert itself) disciplined heavily in Thatcher’s Britain and elsewhere and the “aristocracy of labor” that Lenin wrote of sitting quietly by while the likes of a “socialist” Mitterand continued France’s genocidal ways in West Africa. Only to be sold out by neoliberlism, Acts 2, 3, and 4, now reducing them (as all of us) to “developing world” status. Rinse and repeat now too many times.
We’ll never know whether socialism would have thrived, almost anywhere, because it is was and always has been the true biggest enemy of big capital everywhere.
So–back to our subject–the technocratic dystopia that our neoliberal friends in Brussels cobbled up to knit the continent together economically is failing/badly ailing, in part because (IMO) the inability to exercise decision making over their own sovereign currencies has made it impossible for the home countries/capitals to actually ACT on their own citizen’s behalf, let alone restore something like Keynesian programs of deficit financing to fix anything.
Right-wing nationalism reasserts itself while “liberal democracy” and “socialism” continue to work to defend the indefensible.
Democracy didn’t die in EU; because it was never implemented in the first place. I am reaching 60 and my generation did experience the steps from EEC to EU. It went wrong from 1991/92, ie. end of USSR. That’s when Atlanticists gained momentum and that American totalitarism married German neo-imperialism. Check the steps of CDU under Kohl and the timeline of Kohl himself. The way Germany stated that Yugoslavian Federation had to be dismantled by force and how USA find this perfect in order to expand and consolidate a Wilson Europa.
The very first step in 1992 was Maastricht Treaty and it was rejected by Danmark, yet the Commission worked this around. In France some politicians were extremely clear about the undemocratic texture of the project (Philippe Séguin) but the monster kept growing despite failed referendums after failed referendums.
the point is just that populations don’t organize into armed guerilla against rulers unless things turn very bad.. Medieval French and German revolts, 19th c. revolutions. Still it ends in bloody repressions.
EU is getting set for war against Russia. EU elites are willing to use populations as cannon fodder, or play ballistic gambit, under direction of American oligarchic clans. When EU will be devastated, USA will no longer have nor a wealthy enough customer base nor an overseas Hinterland.
This is where it is heading.
The key point is to kill USA.
Late to comment but this is a really good post. I don’t suppose the spooks were hauled over the carpet for coming up with a bogus report. I was watching the news last night when they featured Romania. It said that all the parties had formed together so that Georgescu wouldn’t even get a look in to have some sort of power even though he was the most popular candidate in the – cancelled – election. I would dearly love to see the Romanians give this guy overwhelming support in the next elections but I have no doubt that they are stacking the deck against him. I do not know if Germany will pull such a stunt in the upcoming elections but I predict trouble Europe wide. They see how an EU style democracy works and are not impressed, particularly the conservatives movement. Those in other countries will see that if they can get away with this in Romania, then they might do the same in other countries where an election throws up the “wrong” result.
The timeline misses some elements of the picture.
The date of election was moved by the Parliament from December to September to enable president, Iohannis, to become General Secretary of NATO, but once it was clear that the chair goes to Rutte of the Netherlands, the date was moved back to December. One of presidential candidates who polled highly in early polls but rather miserably later (Mircea Geoană, 6%) was the deputy of Stoltenberg when the Norwegian was General Secretary. It shows how the elites in EU dream of carriers at EU and NATO levels, perhaps using dutiful service in home countries as the stepping stone. That can contribute to low satisfaction in the elite in many countries (foreign ambitions and the dutiful following of murky “EU+NATO consensus”).
On November 5, candidate Diana Șoșoacă from running, ruling that her public statements and conduct “systematically” violate the country’s constitutional foundation of membership in Euro-Atlantic structures (verbatim from Wikipedia). That truly stirred the pot among “far right” leaning voters who lacked focus on a single candidate, an important reason for “the perfect storm”. Actually, few days ago Wikipedia had a slightly different version, that the ruling had no explanation, but the ruling was in response to complaints that had explanations.
It is now more-or-less official that in Europe a political processes (elections, legislations, statement) are “legitimate” only if the do not undermine ” Euro-Atlantic structures”. I recall a comment in Georgia context that “at stake is the future of Georgia as a pro-Western democracy”.
In mainstream media Calin Georgescu has been falsely presented as the ‘pro-Russian’ candidate. I listened to a couple of electoral speeches and at no point did he claim to favor ‘better ties with Russia’, which would have probably been electorally suicidal. I can’t say that I listened to everything, but all I heard was that Romania should not go to war with Russia for the sake of another state (Ukraine) or to satisfy the interests of foreign powers. His position was the the Romanian state should act in the national interest of Romania (the sheer gall of this guy!)
He was not the pro-Russian candidate, he was the anti-war candidate, and his quick cancellation shows that Romania has been designated by the West to serve as battle field, just like Ukraine. The military base at Mihail Kogalniceanu, in southeast Romania, on the Black Sea coast, will become the largest NATO military base in Europe. No anti-war stance is permissible.
Western Europe does not intend to mess up its beautiful garden, and Russia is not willing to bring world war again to its territory either. Eastern Europe has been slated to function as the sacrificial zone for both sides. Yay for my native country.
Romania like Italy and Hungary fought at Stalingrad
They were Not on the winning side
Pouvez-vous comprendre et vous émouvoir en écoutant cette musique ?
C’est un tzigane roumain, je l’ai rencontré dans mon enfance….je ne savais pas avoir rencontré un Dieu du peuple roumain.
Farâmita Lambru, ça fait 50 ans qu’il est mort, on ne parle plus de lui, car sa musique fait couler les larmes des roumains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0MKpjPDHNI&ab_channel=Electrecord
Un très bon article, dans le sens qu’il raconte tous les racontars qui ont pu traverser les méandres d’une presse que tout le monde sait corrompue.
L’auteur attends plus d’infos de la part des commentateurs. Ses attentes ne sont pas comblées, dans ce que j’ai lu.
Les commentateurs n’en savent pas plus…mais ils en parlent de tout.
J’ai eu la patience de lire tous les commentaires.
Je retrouve un peu de ce qu’on dit sur la dernière grande crise mondiale (comment qu’on veut qu’on l’appelle : Guerre Froide 2.0, Nouvelle Guerre Mondiale, nouveau renouveau….)
C’est comme pour la Russie.
Qui la comprend, qui connait son Histoire, qui connait sa sociologie ?
Personne ne connait la Roumanie (sauf les voleurs de ressources), c’est tellement insignifiant sur le plan médiatique international, mais tout d’un coup ce pauvre pays se retrouve une fois de plus aux carrefours des chemins de guerre des Empires.