Nova News, 11 March 2025
We look to our neighbour in Romania. We include Vladimir Mitev, a journalist with the Bulgarian-Romanian blog “The Bridge of Friendship”. Thank you, Mr. Mitev, for accepting our invitation!
Hello.
What is going on in Romania? In Bulgaria it is already quite dynamic, you are probably informed. Quite serious storylines to develop in our country as well, concerning the Constitutional Court.
In Romania it is no different, although there these evolutions are in a somewhat different direction, if I may put it that way. What has been happening in Romania in the last 24 hours? Have these riots in Bucharest, which we have also been talking about in the news over the last two days, gone away?
Yes, it is a little bit calmer at the moment, because we are just waiting for the Constitutional Court’s decision on the Georgescu appeal, which will come this afternoon. There was a small protest yesterday by a few dozen people outside the Constitutional Court. It was something rather symbolic. Even though there was a report of a person being detained, there were not any serious problems then.
What is happening is more behind the scenes, i.e. there are discussions about who will be the likely replacement for Georgescu, or who those replacements will be, because everyone expects that the candidacy of Călin Georgescu will almost certainly be annulled
He says he will appeal. What are the lawyers saying to you in Romania? Is it possible that his appeal will in fact be successful, or is it unlikely?
Based on the discussions in the media, it is said that it is unlikely that Georgescu’s appeal will be upheld. Maybe you don’t have to be a lawyer to come to that conclusion. Quite serious accusations have been levelled against Georgescu, including that he falsified data in his election-related declarations. Even when his candidacy was annulled by the Central Electoral Bureau, it was pointed out that he had for the first time attached an annex to the property declaration that he had not attached earlier in the annulled previous campaign in November and December. In fact, he listed new information in that annex that he claimed he did not know he was supposed to list at the time. It is that he had received donations, for example, a car or other such items from his fans. So I think his nomination would be difficult to pass. Let’s see the outcome of the ongoing discussions about who will replace him.
Is it possible, again, to ask about any further unrest? Are there rumours, if you like, among the political formations and among journalists that something is being prepared, or is such an escalation being ruled out?
I think that in the situation at the moment, it is possible that competition will emerge in the sovereignist camp. That is to say, for example, on the one hand we have, as Victor Ponta is reported, who is a representative of the Social Democratic Party, but also of the sovereignists within it. This party is generally regarded as the party of the system.
On the other hand, we can already see that George Simion, the leader of the AUR party, is taking a more radical position, at least rhetorically. There have been accusations in the media that these disturbances that were outside the Central Electoral Bureau were the work of his people. So, it is possible to carve out a more radical wing of the sovereignists and another wing that is more moderate. We have to see where the dynamics among the sovereignists will lead.
Okay. Thank you, Mr Mitev, for this conversation. We are in touch with you, of course, because we are following what is happening in Romania in this case as well. Vladimir Mitev, journalist from the Bulgarian-Romanian blog “The Bridge of Friendship”.
Photo: (source: YouTube)
Subscribe to the channel of the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” in YouTube, where a number of video and audio interviews are published! The blog can also be followed in Facebook and Twitter. Its Telegram channel is here. And here is its Substack account.
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