The far right in Romania
The 2020 Romanian parliamentary election results revealed a party that seized the momentum during Covid-19, i.e., the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). Imitating the modus operandi of the fascist Iron Guard movement from the 30s' and modern transnational far-right groups, AUR morphed from a movement to Romania's fourth-largest political force (9.1%). Already having developed a strong electorate in the large Romanian diaspora, AUR grew its domestic support through a concoction of PR stunts and violent anti-vaccine demonstrations against democratic institutions and procedures. Consequently, in just twelve months, AUR strategies propelled this far-right party towards being the second most popular in the polls, i.e., 20.8%. Building on the work of three working papers that analyze AUR's protest strategies, diaspora mobilization, and incorporation of PR stunts that imitate the Brexit campaign and January 6 insurrection, this presentation hopes to provide a succinct overview of the far-right in Romania.
Ionut Chiruta is a Marie Curie Fellow in the Fatigue project at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu. Ionut is also a Researcher at the University of Helsinki's 'Now-Time Us-Space' project and a Dora Plus Visiting Researcher at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo. Ionut holds a master's degree from the University of Oslo in Media Studies. Previous places of study and research include Maastricht, Tartu, Budapest, and Helsinki. In his article-based dissertation entitled "Triadic nexus relationships in an age of populism: interactions between Romania, Hungary, and the Hungarian minority in the Széklerland", Ionut investigates how populism, nationalism, and kin-state activism are shaping Romanian politics and reconstructing the memory and political identity of the Hungarian community.
The webinar will have one short presentation followed by a Q&A session, moderated by Eviane Leidig
The Global Perspectives on the Far Right webinar series
The webinar series Global perspectives on the Far Right is co-hosted by C-REX and ICCT (International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague), and takes place every first Wednesday of the month from August 2021 onwards. The webinars last for one hour from 15:00-16:00 CET, unless indicated otherwise due to speakers’ time zone differences. This webinar series is a continuation of the C-REX hosted webinars that took place from February-July 2021.
The regions covered are largely inspired by the new Manchester University Press book series, ‘Global Studies of the Far Right’, co-founded and co-edited by C-REX affiliate scholar Eviane Leidig.
The webinar will have one short presentation followed by a Q&A session, moderated by Professor Cas Mudde or Eviane Leidig.
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