Vladimir Mitev: Romanian sovereignists expect Trump to take office to insist on political recognition

Ivaylo Stefanov, BNR, 15 January 2025

On 15 January 2025, Ivaylo Stefanov of the Bulgarian National Radio’s cultural programme “Alarm” interviewed Vladimir Mitev about the current political situation in Romania. Vladimir spoke about the protest of 12 January 2025, the contradictions in Romanian society between different types of interests and the positioning of the Romanian left in the current situation. The ‘Alarm’ show usually combines interviews and material on social and progressive issues with unconventional music – punk, free jazz, world music and Middle Eastern music.

You follow the situation in Romania very closely – the cultural, political and social developments. Recently there has been a lot of controversy in society about Georgescu’s candidacy for the presidency. What is happening in Romania at the moment? This is a country that we are very close to and at the same time do not know very well.

I had the opportunity in mid-December 2024, in another interview with BNR, to say that it seems that the different types of elites in Romania are challenging each other. As in Bulgaria, in Romania we have perhaps a relatively younger generation of elites who have a closer relationship with European money. This connection is not necessarily through EU funds, but rather through corporate money – money that comes from Western European or other corporations that have invested in Romania.

These corporatists categorically reject Georgescu’s sovereignism and his idea of a kind of autarchy, to which he alludes when he says he wants Romania to rely on its resources. Some sovereignist politicians and statements suggest that Romanian capital should assert itself and change the balance against foreign capital. The impression is that foreign capital is stronger in Romania.

There is, of course, the NGO sector, which is also very influential in Romania. It is certainly more influential than in Bulgaria. Elena Lasconi had the support of this sector. So we are seeing elites that I don’t know if you can call them clearly younger, but they are certainly a newer type of elites that were created after the beginning of the transition.

Whereas Georgescu, for example, is someone who was educated in the old days, when education was very important. At that time it was difficult to get a higher education. He has his connections, even if he has distanced himself from some of them over time – with those old elites, including Ceausescu’s interpreter Sergiu Celac or the director of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isărescu, who has been the head of the central bank all his life, from the 1990s until now, and has only been prime minister for one year.

These are influential people. But they are in a different trend and they are formed in a different way. What’s happening is a contest between elites, which is important for the international context in which we expect Trump to start the United States. This probably means that our region will have to adapt and the political systems of our region will have to adapt to the new times.

The fact that President Klaus Iohannis is staying on beyond the end of his term, the fact that the prime minister is once again Ciolacu – these things give the impression that the system is not yet ready to adapt and change. Perhaps this means that somewhere in the country, behind the scenes, there are discussions about how exactly this turn should take place. I think it is inevitable that it will be taken.

The protest that took place in Bucharest on Sunday 12 January 2025 was a demand and a first significant step, although there were similar protests before. This protest was bigger. It showed that there will be many such protests and the people who support the sovereignists feel that this is their time. As long as Trump is in the White House, this is their time, the stigma is falling on them and they believe that they have a role to play in the Romanian political system, whether it’s good or bad from the point of view of the rest of us.

Can we say that Trump is a kind of example, an idol for these people, for these sovereignists, Georgescu and so on?

In Romania, there has been a discourse for a long time, also in our country, there are sovereignist podcasts, which rage against, roughly speaking, a trio – the European Commission, the American Democrats and the so-called Soros. So if Trump shares these positions and is not shared by this trinity, it is logical to assume that he is an ally of the people who are pushing in this direction.

And what can we expect now that these presidential elections have been cancelled in Romania?

There are plans to hold new elections in May 2025. Tensions are rising in society, and I had the opportunity, especially when I was in Bucharest in the days around 8 December 2024, to participate in several conversations with sovereignists, and they were adamant that they were not protesting at the moment, but the moment Trump enters the White House, they will feel empowered and put more pressure. They feel that they have their own justice, their own version of things, their own criteria of what is right. And their standard has not been respected for a long time. In a democracy, when they are in the majority, they feel that their standard of justice must be strengthened in some way.

Romania has its peculiarities. It is a much bigger country than Bulgaria. But can we draw a parallel between a kind of confrontation between liberal-minded, pro-Western-minded people and people who are pro-Russian and have a different vision of Romania’s development? This kind of opposition also exists in Bulgaria.

If I were to draw such a parallel, the first thing that strikes me is that in Bulgaria it seems to me that the business sector is weaker. This is simply the balance of the country’s economy. For a long time I had the impression that in Bulgaria national business or local ‘interest’ at the level of the media, at the level of society, seemed to me to be more pronounced than in Romania. At least until recently.

Now we might learn something interesting about Romania, which is that it is not only the big cities. That is, for a long time in Romania, people from the so-called deep Romania, from smaller towns, people who are more religious, sometimes more traditionalist, didn’t have much visibility when a foreigner went there. So the impression was given that Romanians were very Euro-Atlantic, did everything right and so on.

In fact, Romania is going through a difficult period at the moment, even though it has joined Schengen and US visas have been abolished. It is going through a difficult period economically and politically because of this struggle between the elites, in which someone always has to lose. Probably the one who has to lose will be somehow linked to President Iohannis as an influence.

On the other hand, there are economic difficulties, the budget deficit has grown enormously and, if I am not mistaken, is close to 9%, cuts have already started and taxes have been increased. This, in turn, would probably provoke discontent among the people who are most affected by these reforms, and it is usually the poorer people who are affected. 

Sometimes I come into contact with sovereigntists. They resent, for example, that if they have any social benefits, whether for disability, whether for something else, whether some kind of pension, they are of little value, whereas in Romania there are special pensions for people who are either in the military, whether they are connected with the judiciary, in other words, there is an elite that the system nourishes, and of course they are loyal to that system. Maybe every country does that. But the people who are excluded from substantial access to resources, the people who don’t have those privileges or that economic power, feel disadvantaged, and maybe for them, as I said, a Trump presidency would be a chance to compensate for their weakness, to somehow increase their economic or political influence. Because political life is a competition and they can’t be big forever. They also have the right to have their people in power and try to protect their interests.

How do people on the left react? You know people in these circles who are traditionally opposed to neo-liberal policies, but also to extreme nationalism. How do they feel in this situation?

From the few conversations I’ve had, I can see that these people are in no way in favour of Georgescu’s rise, insofar as it is linked to the rise of what is also called legionarism, i.e. a return to the extreme right-wing movement of before and during the Second World War. The Romanian left has noticed that Georgescu is interpreted by the liberals as a socialist – as someone who is almost an extension of the Ceausescu regime. And they point out in articles they publish that Georgescu never expressed any admiration for Ceausescu or for Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Georgescu’s idols are the idols of the legionaries. There are many other reasons why Georgescu’s association with socialism or leftist ideas is not justified, according to the authentic Romanian left we are talking about.

Photo: Banner from the 12 January 2025 sovereignist protest in Bucharest asks Donald Trump for geopolitcal support (source: Lucian Davidescu)

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