“AUR will lose on the line in the local and presidential elections”. Remus Pricopie, SNSPA rector, about Simion’s new threats: “AUR respects the KGB propaganda and manipulation handbook word for word”

The president of the AUR, George Simion, recently declared that the formation will take into account and will propose to other political forces to boycott the local elections, if the AUR project regarding two rounds of voting in the local elections is not adopted by the Parliament. Remus Pricopie, rector of SNSPA, told aktual24.ro that Simion “respects word for word the KGB propaganda and manipulation manual”.

“The position of the AUR pseudo-party on this subject – the election of mayors in two rounds – respects the model of public communication until now, which is a populist-propaganda model. In a first phase, identify a (possible) problem for which I propose a “miraculous solution” (in fact, unrealistic), which must be implemented “immediately”.

If what they ask for does not happen – and they know from the beginning that it cannot happen -, the second phase begins, in which an avalanche of public messages of victimization and identification of the “enemy of the people” is triggered. From AUR’s perspective, everything must be presented in a simple, black-and-white manner, without shades of gray, without explanations and technical details, but with dramatic, noisy coughs, so as to obtain the greatest possible public visibility at the time.

This is how they have proceeded since their debut in national politics, regardless of the topic under discussion, and obeys the KGB propaganda and manipulation manual word for word.

In the case of local elections, what they propose is unconstitutional. The method of elections can NOT be changed only a few months before the date of the elections. There is a term of 12 months stipulated in both a decision of the Constitutional Court and a recommendation of the Venice Commission, on the same issue. I repeat: it is about the method of elections, not the election calendar, which is established by the Government.

In addition, George Simion talks about “extreme but democratic gestures”, which is nonsense, a contradiction in terms. Simion, a legionary politician, does not understand that extremism cannot be democratic. It has a profoundly wrong relationship to the concept of democracy and the actions that fall within the democratic sphere.

Practically, George Simion proves once more that he has nothing to do with democracy, that he thinks and acts deeply undemocratically, that is, a legionary-fascist type of thinking, specific to the interwar period”, declared Pricopie.

Regarding the statements of some former members of the AUR who resigned, arguing that the AUR would be “a party without members”, in the sense that no clear records of members or contributions are kept, so it is not known where the money comes to the AUR and where are they going, Pricopie stated that he does not rule out the theory that the boycott threatened by Simion would actually be an elegant solution to avoid being laughed at because the party simply does not have enough candidates in the local:

“It is very possible that this is the case, because AUR does not exist as a political formation at the level of all localities in Romania. AUR is, as you very well said, “the party without members”, therefore they have no one to propose on electoral lists. We are talking about 41 viable candidates for county councils, 3,180 candidates for mayors, 40,022 local councilors and 1,338 county councillors. AUR does not have these candidates, it is a party without substance, that is, a pseudo-party. The only town where they are trying to play a game of intimidation is Bucharest.

Therefore, instead of being in the embarrassing situation where everyone sees that you have no one to go with in the local elections, shout as loud as you can that the process is undemocratic and that you made the “extremist, but democratic” decision to boycott the elections , through non-participation.

The only elections in which the AUR could have some result are the European elections, because at this level the voting mechanisms are much simpler: we have only one constituency – Romania – and only one list of candidates, with a few dozen names. Otherwise, the AUR will lose in the local and presidential elections, and these defeats will demobilize its supporters for the parliamentary elections, from December 2024. I do not exclude that in the future Parliament (2024-2028), the AUR will have an even greater weight smaller than the current one, of approximately 10%”, says the SNSPA rector.