Ranking third in
line to win the European Parliament ballot of May 26th, after the
Social-Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, and commonly perceived
as a pro-European alternative to the aforementioned parties, the 2020 Alliance
was very close to being left out of the election race after the Central
Election Office rejected the underlying protocol of the alliance signed by its
two parties, the Save Romania Union and PLUS, for technical reasons.
On Friday,
however, the High Court of Cassation and Justice in Bucharest decided the 2020
Alliance can submit its candidates in the May 26th election. The
Central Election Office also rejected the claim of another alliance to enroll
in the ballot, this time made up of the Great Romania Party and the United
Romania Party.
The reason is
that the late Corneliu Vadim Tudor still appears as president of the Great
Romania Party in the Party Register. Since his death in 2015, the party didn’t
change the party leader’s name in the register. The United Romania Party will
submit its separate candidates, the most spectacular of whom is by far the
former MP Sebastian Ghita, who sought refuge in neighboring Serbia fleeing
prosecution in Romania.
The party
describes Ghita as the Romanian who dealt a heavy blow to the new Securitate
police, who exposed the system and the ‘elite’ Anticorruption Directorate, a
man who militated for a country of the people and who became a target,
harangued for having the courage to tell the truth.
We recall Ghita
voiced strong criticism against Laura Codruta Kovesi and the National
Anticorruption Directorate, which he accused of allegedly abusing her office
when investigating politicians for acts of corruption. Ghita’s election
campaign is based on a nationalist anti-migration and Christian discourse, very
similar to that of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. I don’t want to see
Romania become the duchy of the Luxembourgish running Brussels! So I shout with
all my might: Long live Great, United and Sovereign Romania!, Sebastian
Ghita’s message to the Romanians reads.
His campaign
will most likely be marked by nationalist and xenophobic rhetoric. In turn,
Social-Democratic leader Liviu Dragnea this weekend declared himself a
pro-European, underlining however that Romania wanted to join the EU for a
better life, not to return to a life in fear and terror. We wanted to join
the European Union for access to development. We demand the same respect we’re
offering. I can’t accept the fact that everything we say, everything we do
should be criticized, attacked and blocked, while other people’s lies should be
taken at face value, without proper verification, Dragnea said.
This is a clear
hint at the constant criticism voiced by Romania’s European partners regarding
the repeated legislative modifications the ruling coalition in Romania has made
in the field of the judiciary. On the other hand, the leader of the Democratic
Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, Kelemen Hunor, says the European Union
is Europe’s the only viable solution to measure up to global powers and only
political alternative for Romanians and Hungarians in Romania.