Nicolae Rațiu, the son of the late Ion Rațiu, considered a symbol of democracy and dubbed “the best president Romania never had”, has warned about the rise of the far-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu saying he would lead Romania into a dictatorship if he came to power.
“If you want dictatorship in the country, in Romania, vote for Calin Georgescu!” Mr. Ratiu told B1 television channel on Tuesday.
“Young people should know that Romania was a prison under communism. Russia is a country of poverty, and Georgescu wants to bring Russia to Romania. Is that what we want?”
Mr. Ratiu senior went into exile in the 1940s when communists took over Romania after World War II. He fought for democracy from Britain where he made his home, alerting the world to the abuses of Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship though his publication “the Free Romanian.”
Son Nicolae Ratiu who has taken over his democracy advocacy work carried out by the ‘Ratiu Foundation” also called the far-right, unorthodox Georgescu,62, “naïve.”
“He says the country should be neutral to be safe. That’s madness. If you think (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has any respect for neutrality.. think again, he doesn’t! If Russia wants to invade Romania, it will…Putin is already responsible for 750,000 deaths and wounded people (after Russia invaded Ukraine). And Georgescu wants to invite him to our country?”
Mr. Ratiu rebuked Mr. Georgescu at the weekend for using the ‘Ratiu’ name to promote his campaign to try to gain a veneer of respectability.
Explaining the historic success of the far-right parties in December 1 parliamentary elections and the surge of relative unknown Georgescu, to the runoff, Ratiu’s son said:
“In many countries people are fed up with politicians, because they have not delivered everything people wanted. We need a change, something new, something that will make our lives better. And with that comes people like Trump for example. (…). But there is also a danger there, because we know that Georgescu…wants to move away from the EU, he wants to get closer to Russia. He says that we will no longer need political parties in the future. … This is dictatorship! When someone talks about something like this, that’s dictatorship. And this is my message: if you want dictatorship in… Romania, vote for Calin Georgescu!”
Of centrist mayor Elena Lasconi who will face Mr. Georgescu in the December 8 run-off, he said: “ She’s a decent lady…. Some people may not be very, very happy with her or don’t feel like she has enough experience. But even if they don’t want to vote for Elena Lasconi, they should vote against Călin Georgescu, because if not, there will be a disastrous, horrible future.”
He recalled elections in 2000, when Romanians has a choice between ex-communist Ion Iliescu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor, “another fanatical populist.”
“ I had to vote and I voted against Corneliu Vadim Tudor.
Now it’s the same situation and we have to vote against Calin Georgescu, to prevent him from imposing a dictatorship on Romania in the future.”
Trump’s team doesn’t support hard-right presidential candidate Calin Georgescu-Ambassador
