One of the big surprises of the Romanian elections in December 2020, was the stunning success of the Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), a new party on the radical right whose acronym means ‘gold’ in Romanian. The party, led by George Simion and Claudiu Târziu, was founded in September 2019. The party won 8.69% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 8.77% of the Senate, making it the fourth largest party in the country now.
Despite a strong shift against the ruling National Liberal Party (PNL), the government should be able to remain in power by entering into a coalition with the Save Romania Union (USR) after an election in which just under 33% of eligible voters participated. Romania has not had a strong right-wing party since the death of Corneliu Vadim Tudor in 2015, making it an unusual exception in a region where more and more voters are moving steadily towards the radical right.
‘Family, Fatherland, Faith, and Freedom’
The party lists ‘Family, Fatherland, Faith, and Freedom’ as the four ‘pillars’ of its program, but it is mostly known within Romania for demanding the unification of Romania and Moldova, the abolition of same-sex marriage, anti-Hungarian rhetoric, and hostility towards masks and COVID-19 restrictions.
