Romania's Never-Ending Political Crisis Explained

Romania's democracy has been under strain since the annulment of last years' presidential elections, leading to the ban of two presidential candidates so far. In this video, we're taking a look at the rise of far right in Romania and how foreign influence is stoking tensions further.

Our mission is to explain news and politics in an impartial, efficient, and accessible way, balancing import and interest while fostering independent thought.

TLDR is a completely independent & privately owned media company that's not afraid to tackle the issues we think are most important. The channel is run by a small group of young people, with us hoping to pass on our enthusiasm for politics to other young people. We are primarily fan sourced with most of our funding coming from donations and ad revenue. No shady corporations, no one telling us what to say. We can't wait to grow further and help more people get informed. Help support us by subscribing, engaging and sharing. Thanks!

//////////////////////

Sources:

00:00 - Introduction
01:09 - Context
02:19 - Rise of the Far Right
04:21 - 2024 Elections Explained
07:28 - What Will Happen Next
07:54 - Sponsored Content

[TimoDavide]

Romanian here. I think the person in the video is not fully aware of our recent history and our current legislation. "The legionaries" was a political party in Romania active between 1927-1941. These guys were voted mainly because they presented themselves as very religious. Once in power, they did horrendous murders in Romania and they also allied with the nazis in WW2. The current Romanian legislation prevents the rise of such a sect in the political spectrum and whoever declares they support the actions of "the legionaries" will face prison and also that person cannot run for elections. Now what do you think Georgescu declared numerous times in various interviews? He really shouldn't be allowed to run for elections. Normally, the authorities should have banned him from the very beginning, just like they did with Sosoaca.

[astrosloth]

Romanian here, here's more context about Calin Georgescu:
- He claimed Pepsi contains nanochips
- He called the head of WHO (a black man) a "house twice, hard R, in an English interview
- He wanted to ban political parties (all of them, or at least all that don't support him)
- He declared 0 campaign expenditures (although that TikTok campaign cost millions of dollars, as confirmed by TikTok themselves). This is illegal.
- He was supported and protected by Foreign Legion mercenary Horatiu Potra and his band. Long story short, Potra fled the country, police raided his house and found grenades and grenade launchers, automatic rifles, 1 million euros cash hidden in a safe in the floor
- He said once he's elected he would go after the press "paid by George Soros" - he said they are on "known lists"
- He wanted to nationalize land, like the communists did
- He thinks water contains energy and he said he would build the first water pipes
- And the list goes on and on

I feel this video did not stress enough how much of a nutjob he is.

Also, Lasconi was (and still is) bitter because she thought she had a real chance in the canceled elections. The truth is most people voted for her due to a lack of alternative. Now that there are better alternatives, her rating plummeted.

[alexandruavram-rusu]

Romanian here.
I follow TLDR, but this is very simplistic or misinformed.

First of all, Romania achieved significant economic development. While some regions have been left behind, they still saw significant growth. These regions still vote PSD or PNL.

Second is that there are not only suspicions. Georgescu was the leader of an organization that wanted to orchestrate a coup. Either by ellection or by force. We are talking about millions of EUR invested in his campaign and a vast cyberattack via social media, corelated with several fascist organizations and a mercenary organization that fought in Congo and was heavily armed. Georgescu committed electoral fraud by declaring 0 expenses. All over social media, you would see tens upon tens of bots that would post or write about voting for him. On top of it, people started to protest against this, and these mercenaries and groups started threatening people.

Third, Romanian politics in fragmented into 3 blocks: PSD-PNL-UDMR that form the government, around some 55% USR and several local and small parties that didn't get into Parlament (20%) and are reformists and anti-establishment. AUR-POT-SOS that make around 30% and are extremists.

Fourth, support for Ukraine has not stopped. I don't know where you get that data from, but the vast majority of Romanians support Ukraine, and we have provided a lot of help and continue doing so. Maybe that 20% support is just the people who want us to send troops. But, at the same time, 90% hate Russia and want to continue being part of the EU and NATO.

Fifth, and lastly, the last poll before the canceled election showed that Lasconi was going to win. Even a recent poll showed most would have voted for her. Pollymarket showed a 60%-70% chance she would win, while bookmakers were puttin around 2 for her and 7 for him.

The shock of the annulment of ellections was felt, but most accepted it. We have a strong democratic framework, and the Constitutional Court acted in accordingly. There were no huge protests. AUR mobilized 100k people a month after the elections, but as Iohannis stepped down and evidence was made public, we are ok with the decisions.

[Manodragon]

I'm a Romanian. Is this script written with AI? Some informations sound like hallucinations? Just curious

[Puski]

If you have a candidate that declares 0 campaign funds yet dozens of influencers received money from "somewhere" to promote him - what would you do as a country?
If you have a candidate that glorifies Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the founder of the Legionary movement (similar to the Nazi movement) - what would you do as a country?
If you have a candidate that markets himself the same way Putin did and adapts his views - what would you do as a country?

Romania still has some sanity - obviously the government sucks and there are countless issues, but starting to side with Russian ideology after years of prosperity in the EU is just plane stupid.

[quinnlovelost]

a lot of errors in this vdeo. you showed a picture of George Simion instead of Calin Georgescu at the beginning of the video, the AUR was founded in 2019, not last year (there's a contrasiction in the video) and you should've mentioned the armed neofascist groups that planned an insurrection and coordonated with Georgescu

[mihaimarius]

The amount of wrong facts in this video is astonishing, I expected better from you guys. Get someone from Romania to fact check or get better researchers, please

[Haris]

@0:18 this is not Calin Georgescu, it is another far right candidate George Simion

[AvnerSolomon]

I think it is important to say 3 things about Calin Georgescu: 1) he declared budget of 0 for his campaign, which conflicts with our transparency laws, even in USA there are transparency laws for campaigns. It doesn't matter if he purchased ads himself or had a third party to do it. For the sake of fairness we have transparency laws and caps (how much a person or a company can donate to a campaign). I know this might be an outdated way of handling things in the era of social media but overall transparency is good. Same reason why republicans supported DOGE (even if we can argue if those cuts are lawful or not). 2) Georgescu clearly state he wants to abolish all parties and instaurate a single party, which is against the constitution. Now if it is ok to ban someone for speaking multiple times against the constitution is another debate. I believe that is not enough of a reason. 3) people from his team that are merceniers with ties to Wagner group have been arrested and seem to have planned a military-coup. Again I wouldn't say that unless there are actual ties proven he should have been cancelled . Overall except point 1) I would agree all points are debatable. Have to keep in mind that law (judicial power) in general is reactionary. EG: a president can actually do something unlawful and only after that he can stand trial. This will always be the problem with constitutional democracies (and the separation of powers) compared with totalitarianism or elected authocracies, and it will always be an easy vector of attack for foreign interference, which was always a textbook thing even during USSR and CIA did it too.

[theemperorofmankind]

not the first time tldr got its facts wrong, and sure as hell wont be the last

[asdv-gmyy]

If Putin says you are "undemocratic" it means you're doing the correct thing for your country and national sovereignty

[rocketprinter]

This video is absolutely filled with errors and missed context, as the other comments point out. Such a shame, as a romanian I thought TLDR was pretty a good source of EU news but how can I trust the accuracy of other reports now?

[cinevreodata]

I am Romanian and I usually follow your videos closely and regularly. But this one has opened my eyes to the fact that you may not be that competent or well researched. You missed some crucial details that further elaborate on how or why the elections were annulled, along with some of the deeper ties Georgescu has with Russia and militant mercenary groups. You could have mentioned Potra's attempts at insurgency, or the armed convoys he led (and were stopped en route) to Bucharest. You could also have elaborated on what Legionarism is specifically, and what Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and Ion Antonescu were fans of (the people CG praised (which is illegal to do in Romania, same as it would be to praise Hitler in Germany) ). You could have also mentioned the connections that investigative journalists, both local and international, have uncovered regarding CG's funding and illegal (literally broke multiple electoral rules) TikTok campaign. This video seems to be aimed at "enlightened centrists" who like to argue about the philosophy of democracy and tolerance, without really having a good idea of what happened here, and just assuming that Romania "banned a candidate just because the establishment didn't like him"

Edit: Not to say this video is necessarily “factually wrong”, but it skims over MAJOR details and lacks a lot of key context, without which it feels artificially skewed into a dishonest, forceful and disturbing “middle-ground” - which is exactly how people like Musk interpret the situation

[mihaipaculea]

For the far right campaign Calin Georgescu said he used 0 budget! This is ilegal in Romania to lie about your funds, this is why it was banned. You missed all of this!

[Mosern]

I tend to go down into the comment section to see what the locals feel about the TLDR report, that's often where you find the important details and missed points.

[Alex]

"Protect the stupid people from their own stupidity" it's basically how the system works right now

[Fluxwux]

“A tolerant society must be intolerant against the intolerant” - Karl Popper

A quote I feel is very fitting in the context of Romania. Stay strong and don’t let fascists take over!

[ANDRiD]

Maybe banning candidates that threaten the fundementals of democracy is not as bad.

[kerkarraje]

Pretty much everything in this video is wrong or lacking proper context. Before asking for more subs get your facts straight and work on your impartiality.

[adrianstratulat]

4:38 he did not win the elections. He was first place in the FIRST ROUND. Which is a major mistake on your part. Historically, we had two other elections in which in the second round people rallied up against such upstarters, with Victor Ponta vs Iohannis and Viorica Dancila vs Iohannis. There is 0 certainty Calin Georgescu would have won the second round. His supporters will say so, but the math was against them. Georgescu won only 22% of the votes in the first round. Far from 50% needed to call him the winner. Not to mention the whole “i have zero budget electoral campaign Bs”.