Romania’s anti-Semitism czar Alexandru Muraru on Monday praised Moldovans for not electing “a neo-fascist and anti-Semitic” Romanian party which ran in snap elections in neighboring Moldova.
Xenophobia
Mr. Muraru, who is leader of a regional branch of the ruling Liberal Party, said the clear victory of a pro-European party in Sunday’s ballot was “ an overwhelming victory of reason, tolerance, respect and dignity against xenophobia, hate and extremism” promoted by the Romanian party which ran.
The election result “opens the way for Moldova to get closer to the European Union and eliminate the oligarchic structures of corruption which have kept the country in a state of underdevelopment”.
“The other significant thing about the elections… is the censure of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR)’, an extremist and neo-fascist party”, he said in a statement.
Bullying
With nearly all of the votes counted, the pro-European Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) came first with 52.60 % of the votes. The pro-Russian Bloc of Communists and Socialists, BeCS polled 27.32% of the votes. Another party won 5.77%. Other parties didn’t meet the threshold.
AUR polled less than one percent of the vote in Sunday’s ballot.
The party came out of nowhere to take fourth place in Romania’s December 2020 parliamentary elections. It took 9% of the vote campaigning on a message of nationalism, pro-family values and anti-lockdown restrictions. In May, it announced it would contest seats in the Moldovan Parliament.
It tried to “transport its political bullying, (attempts to) undermine democracy and ideological extremism to Moldova”, he said.
Lies
“The party is anti-Semitic and…. populist . We thank Moldovans for not listening to their mirage of lies“, Mr Muraru added.
He criticized the group’s entry into Moldovan politics and said the Iasi branch of the ruling Liberal Party, which is in the Romanian province of Moldova, had “directly supported the pro-European groups in Chisinau” the Moldovan capital.
Ex-Soviet republic
Moldova is in Romania and a separate country to the part of Moldova that was a former Soviet republic. Iasi is the capital of the Romanian province of Moldova. The part of Moldova which is north of the River Prut was annexed to the Soviet Union during World War II.
“Democratic values and respect are stronger than racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia” he said in a statement.
Mr Muraru is an advisor to Romania’s prime minister in charge of fighting anti-Semitism and preserving the memory of Holocaust and communism.
