- “It was our form of marketing, promotion, media coverage. (…) A form of promotion… If we didn’t have these forms of promotion to break the information blockade, we wouldn’t be where we are today, with 42% of the votes.”
- “I respect the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban and that is why many of his positions, not all, but many of his positions will be state policy in Romania as well.”
When he made the two explosive statements above– first admitting that he lied from the start about houses for 35,000 euros, and in the other practically announcing that he would put Romania on the road to dictatorship – George Simion didn’t make a blunder in the substance of what he was saying, only the way he said it.
It is already well known that this individual has a habit of lying, having lied on numerous occasions – starting with the fact he wouldn’t politics, while he was campaigning for the union with the Republic of Moldova, to stating he wouldn’t run for president again, having being defeated in the first round. And how many other episodes have there been in between…. that he is anti-system (although he meets all sorts rom this “system”), that he was not supported by a party other than AUR in the elections (although the PSD admitted that they directed votes to him in November), and so on…. .
This individual is recognized among colleagues and former party and civic colleagues that he is driven by authoritarian impulses.
Since he has been flirting with a candidacy for Cotroceni (presidential) Palace, George Simion has given all the possible signs that institutions and democracy, the rule of law and norms can be overturned. Just as the EU stinks, but Putin doesn’t, Ukraine stinks, but Russia doesn’t, stability isn’t good, but Trump is.
In addition, he jumped (literally) at the neck of a political opponent (even at the rostrum of the Parliament), filled the public space with curses and threats more worthy of the cruelties carried out in the Middle Ages. Rallies organized by AUR see a flood of calls for violence and gestures of violence directed against journalists.
Therefore, the fact that George Simion promises us a Romania transformed into the image and likeness of Viktor Orban’s Hungary, should surprise no-one.
It should scare us and activate us, at this late stage, the survival and self-preservation instincts of a wide spectrum of Romanians – among those who voted in the first round with his and Nicușor Dan’s opponents, among those who voted for George Simion himself, as well as those who didn’t vote.
But, once again, it should come as no surprise that George Simion has the same plans as Viktor Orban. Romania’s pro-Russian local man had presented in advance all the symptoms that the pro-Russian in Budapest has been showing for over a decade.
If, on the other hand, there is any trace of blunder in the two statements made by the AUR leader, it has to do only with the form, and not with the substance.
With the form – that is, the way he said everything, the moments he did it, the reason why he gave himself away.
There is, of course, a simple explanation for these blunders committed by George Simion: his lack of education, respectively his lack of experience in complex environments, other than the street and the football stands.
His limits were shockingly exposed during the Euronews Romania debate.
George Simion has boasted that he wasn’t fond of school, and that wasn’t a big problem in a country where functional illiteracy is skyrocketing, and the education system is weak. .
But when Simion reached a one-on-one electoral debate, the boomerang came back to hit him.
It’s to be expected, given the context:
- Questions on complex and varied topics.
- Answers to be given in real time.
- Face to face with a double gold medalist at the International Mathematical Olympiad and also holder of a doctorate gained in Paris,
All these elements put him under constant pressure, revealing his poor vocabulary, ideological incoherence, grammatical incoherence, the ease with which he can be tripped up, the ease with which he can be made to make one mistake after another, serious mistakes.
The real school – or rather the lack of it – took its revenge on George Simion. And street smarts was no match for his opponent.
After this experience, Geoege Simion’s team will pump him up with doses of “intellectual” steroids, but he will not be able to make up for the years of pretending to be educated, even if he manages to make some progress.
That is why his pro-European opponent, Nicusor Dan needs to take him even more seriously.
All the more so since, in the case of the Orbanization of Romania, announced by Simion, Nicușor Dan also committed a huge blunder : he did not grab the opportunity and exploit it to its full extent.
It is imperative that Nicușor Dan recovers and properly “works” George Simion on this issue, especially since the day after the debate, Simion relapsed, suggesting he will transform Romania into an authoritarian state, in line with the Hungarian model.
“Thank you for the wonderful message, @PM_ViktorOrban. We have a fight to win! Together!” – this was Simion’s reaction after the Hungarian prime minister sent him a sign of support, satisfied that he had been mentioned in glowing terms by his pro-Russian comrade from Bucharest.
On the issue of houses at impossibly low prices, George Simion practically admitted that he had lied shamelessly. In the matter of turning Romania into a misfortune from an economic and democratic point of view, like contemporary Hungary, George Simion practically transmitted to his nation an unprecedented and unequivocal threat.
Nicușor Dan has the moral, political and strategic duty to pragmatically exploit these two major breaches in George Simion’s arsenal.
But Romanians, for the most part, regardless of how Dan will play this card, have the duty to do the same – also unequivocally and perfectly irreversibly penalizing Simion at the polls.
In the case of Romanians, it is not a duty either to Nicușor Dan, or to anyone else, but above all it is a sacred duty to the person of each one of them, to their own children and parents, to the victims of miners’ rampages in the 1990s, to the 1,100 dead and 3,000 wounded during the Revolution, to the martyrs of the political prisons in the funeral decades of the communist dictatorship.
In January 2024, I wrote this text: Was the gold sold to FIDESZ before our eyes? How George Simion and Viktor Orban became “the same mess”.
There has never been a better time than now to meditate on this, especially with just days to the election. If we are not careful at the ballot box, this will start to happen in just over a week.
