The Duran Podcast - Democracy dies in Romania

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Democracy dies in Romania

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is going on in Romania, and we had the arrest and the release of Kalin Georgescu, who was on his way to submit his papers for the presidential elections in Romania. The police stopped him. They detained him. They questioned him for about six hours. It seems like they charged him. Well, they did charge him with very vague, very vague charges, at least in my opinion, you know better. charges related to conspiracy and fascism and spreading

misinformation and stuff like that. And they also went after his supporters, the police, as well. So we've covered the situation in Romania in past videos. The canceled or annulled elections that happened a few months back. We're going to have new elections in about

60 days. By the way, Georgeescu has been banned from speaking to media and social media for 60 days. And we had J.D. Vance in Munich. And I think there are some connections here in Munich, where he was talking about the deterioration in free speech in Europe, the deterioration of, I guess you could say human rights, I guess you could say that, or at least the rise of the globalist class in Europe, and he specifically called out Romania in his speech in Munich. And I guess we got the answer from the European Union and from the Romanian authorities to J.D. Vance's speech, which is we don't give a flip what you say, we're going to do whatever we want. And right now,

it looks like what they want is to silence, cancel, humiliate Georgescu and his supporters. Because I do want to say one more thing. Georgeescu seems, he had a knee surgery from what I understand, and he has difficulty walking, and the videos that came out where they pulled him out of the car and they put him up against the wall. I thought it was pretty shameful stuff, what they were doing to Georgescu. But your thoughts on everything that's happening in Romania. Well, the first thing I have to say straight away is that I don't understand both of these charges. He has his views. I don't agree with all of them. I don't agree with men. of them, but the point is elections are supposed to be about people arguing about views.

If his views are terrible and obnoxious, then you argue that point during an election and you try and get people to recognize that fact and to vote against him. This is a clear device. These charges seem to me so vague and so incoherent that, I mean, they are clearly political charges. I mean, I'm going to say straightforwardly, they're clearly political charges, which in my opinion are intended to prevent him running in the election. And there is no other explanation for them other than that. And I think what has precipitated these charges is that we're now getting opinion polls in Romania, which show that if there is an election and he does run in it, he will win. It's as simple as this.

So they don't want him to win. They don't want him to win because he is opposed to project Ukraine, which is, I think, ultimately the big issue. They don't want him to win because he's critical of the EU in all sorts of ways. And the result is, and this has clearly been coordinated at multiple levels, not just within Romania, but people outside. the decision has been made, therefore, to prevent him standing. I think that is what is going to happen. I think we're going to move on beyond this. Charges have now been brought.

I think we're going to see that there's going to be steps to prevent him registering or if you does want to register to remove his registration in order to prevent him standing and preventing him from becoming president of Romania. So once upon a time, not long ago, I can remember how people used to create. criticize Russia. They used to say that the Russians, that the official doctrine of the Putin government was that Russia should be a managed democracy, something which no Russian official ever said, by the way, it was a misrepresentation of what they did say, which is that it should be a sovereign democracy, in other words, an independent one. But a managed democracy,

I remember reading article after article criticizing this, saying that a man, Managed democracy is not actually a democracy. That is what Romania now is because it is now becoming a democracy, which some people are allowed to stand, but not others. I mean, in Iran, they do the same thing, and we criticize it. But apparently Romania, it's fine. And, you know, you bring charges against people that you disagree with and prevent them from standing. you disenfranchise a huge swath of the Romanian electorate. You perhaps prepare the grounds for a future political crisis in Romania.

And coming back to your further point, you stick up two fingers to the United States, to Donald Trump, to J.D. Vance, and to the government there. Because J.D. Vance was very critical in his Munich speech about what was happening in Romania. and we see that the Romanian government or rather whatever are, whoever are the authorities in Romania, as I said, this clearly goes beyond Romania, that the authorities in Romania are just going ahead and pushing forward with this. Now, I'm not giving advice, but I would make one further point when things like this have been done in third countries, The United States in the past has sanctioned those countries for doing those things. The United States has already said that it is critical of the way in which the Romanian

election is being conducted. Will they now act? Will they now start imposing sanctions? We shall see. I don't know about that. We'll see. We will see. But they do love them sanctions.

the U.S., that's for sure. Maybe the EU will sanction Romania. I don't know. But the EU is always going on about democracy and the beauty of democracy. They have a shining example in Ukraine to go off of. That's how democracy should be run, the way it's run in Ukraine. But Georgia was also critical of NATO. Yeah.

He wasn't against NATO. He wasn't against NATO. He wasn't against the EU to be fair to him. You never said I'm going to take. At least I don't, I can't think of a time. when I was listening to his speeches where he said, I'm going to take Romania out of the European Union or take Romania out of NATO. He's been critical of the conflict of Ukraine. He doesn't want the escalation. He wants more attention, more funds, more money concentrated in Romania for the people, God forbid. But there is a big NATO base. We've talked about this NATO base many, many years ago. We've discussed this NATO base in Romania about about a year ago. when it was being developed. It's going to be a big base, perhaps the biggest. And then we have all the weapons and the military that's in Romania, the foreign military, called them mercenaries, whatever,

that are in Romania as well. And it's no secret Romania's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. So, I mean, you know, there is a NATO, obviously a Ukraine connection, but even above the Ukraine connection. There's a NATO connection. And of course, you could connect this to the fear that NATO has of people like Trump and Vance and the U.S. is positioned towards Europe and towards NATO. So, I mean, maybe they're trying to close ranks or trying to consolidate NATO, the Europeans, and trying to make sure that no people get elected who can further jeopardize the existence of these institutions. Well, that's exactly what it is. I mean, I think Project Ukraine is where it all began, if we go back to the election that was supposed to happen in December, and which he won. He won the first round, and then they scrapped the first round. And then they said it was all due to Russian interference, except that they never provided any evidence of Russian interference. I mean, the famous TikTok videos were launched by a rival.

political party, which was using him to undermine one of its own, you know, opponents. I mean, the whole story was every part of what was claimed was completely untrue. And by the way, just if I can also say something about his views, as I said, I don't agree with many of his views. I mean, he said positive things about Ion Antonescu, who was Romania's leader in the 1930s and during the war. I think he was an appalling individual. I think he did terrible things. But, you know, this is a Romanian discussion. And Yogiescu has every right, it seems to me, to express whatever views he considers appropriate in that type of discussion. The point is,

it was never an issue before. He was actually appointed to represent Romania in all sorts of venues previously. There was never any issue about him having these views when he stood for the first round of the first presidential election, which was cancelled. These views only became obnoxious and dangerous to Romania when it looked like he was going to win the election. And that is absolutely wrong. I mean, if you set up an election, if you have one set of rules that you have for the election and that election proceeds. You can't just overturn the whole election and say, well, you know, suddenly we're going to operate it across with a completely different set of rules, which we are the people who we decide what they are

and we change them as we wish because we don't want somebody to win an election with those kind of views. I mean, that is grotesque. That is clearly wrong. But, I mean, all the points that you were making, that now it's probably gone beyond Project Ukraine, that they're worried about the integrity of the whole EU project, that they're worried about what might happen if another leader were elected in another East European or Central European state who takes positions similar to those of Victor Orban and Robert Fizzo and people like that. Well, I think you're absolutely right. I'm sure that is correct. And you're absolutely correct. Also, I don't think he's ever spoken. He's ever said that his program, if elected, would be to take Romania out of NATO. I've never seen this. But, you know, even if that is his program, that is not a reason for preventing him from standing in the election. Just saying.

Yeah, I mean, the fear of having another leader who could be aligned with Orban and Feizzo is just terrifying to the kleptocrats in Brussels. Absolutely. And it's Brussels. There's the EU and NATO. The EU is here and across the street is NATO HQ. That's a problem. That is a problem. But, yeah, you can't have a dynamic where you have Orban, Fizzo, Georgescu, possibly Babich in the Czech

public. In Austria, I don't think we've still resolved who exactly, yeah, and the fear is that Kiko might end up leading Austria. They can't have this dynamic where you go from from Arbantu to Fizzo and then all of a sudden you have five or six leaders who are in Europe who could align against the Ursula wing of the EU. That's terrifying to that. That's terrifying to that. And so I guess they're just trying to stop this before it gets to a point where they have a significant block of countries that are thinking for themselves. That is exactly correct. And in a sense, this was hardwired into the project anyway. I mean, putting aside what the Americans are saying and the fact that this is probably galvanized them in Brussels and in Bucharest and in all sorts of other places, Berlin as well, I suspect, to start acting in this more authoritarian way.

The fact is that sooner or later, as the EU centre imposed more and more control over the states, and you started to see more and more opposition develop, it was inevitable that we would start to see more, shall we say straightforwardly repressive mechanisms being brought into play, and we see this now happening in Romania. Now, I'm going to say something about Romania because I've never actually visited Romania. I know a lot of people from that. And I know an awful lot about Romanian history. And I know a few things about Romanians, which is that they're a fiery, passionate, intensely patriotic people who are no pushovers.

So I don't know where all this is going. And of course, this has probably come as a shock to many people in Romania, who I know are already bitterly cynical about the kind of political system they have in their country. But I can very, very easily see how protests, which are already very large against all this, could get bigger and bigger. And, well, we could see those protests grow and grow to an uncontrollable size. So I'm not predicting that because I don't know enough about the internal situation in Romania to say what will definitely happen. But if we start getting situations where the riot police are brought out, I'm not saying that's going to happen. I'm not saying I wanted to happen, but if we see it and if we start seeing clashes between the police and protesters, I will not be surprised.

Well, I mean, what do you do if you're a Romanian citizen? Even if you don't support Georgescu, what do you do? Do you just allow the courts and the European Union to pick your leaders? Okay, maybe you understand now that that is the arrangement. Yeah. That's the arrangement and either you accept it or you somehow go against it. But I mean, I just don't know. What other option do you have if this is being done to you and you're in Romania?

Is this going to be the pattern for all EU country? I mean, is this where we're heading towards? Because we have documented, when we go back to our videos, in a way we've documented the evolution of the European Union's authoritarianism. I remember just a year, year and a half ago, we were doing videos talking about how the EU likes to cobble together, coalitions from all different parts of the political spectrum, put them together, run them in an election so they can defeat a... a candidate who they don't approve of. An example of that was the Czech Republic where it worked.

An example of that where it failed was hungry. But that was a tactic that Europe was using about a year, a year and a half ago. The EU was using a year and a half ago. They've done these sort of things with the Lisbon Treaty, I believe with Ireland. If you don't get the vote that you want, then you just rerun the vote again. So I mean, these are tactics that have evolved. But we've now got into the point, Alexander, where the EU is just, they're just brazen about it. They're just coming out and saying, look, we don't like you. We're not going to let you run. It's that simple. But if you're a citizen in one of these countries, what are your options then? Do you just accept it? Because eventually they're going to come after your privacy.

They're going to come after your money. They're going to come after your banking. I mean, where does it end? Well, indeed. Well, can I just point out in this particular case, it's even more certain. because they're not just acting to stop Georgescu from running. They're bringing criminal charges against him, which presumably, if taken to their logical conclusion, could result in him being in prison. Now, let me repeat again, all of these things that he's been saying, all these attitudes that he's had, he's had for a very, very long time. There were never a problem before.

He officially represented Romania in all sorts of very. apparently, you know, when he was seen as an academic with rather eccentric views on certain things, but, you know, somebody who was ultimately, you know, somebody who could be put forward because he has whatever academic reputation he clearly does have. Now, he stands for election. He's critical of the EU center and its policies. He's critical of the policies relating to the EU centre's beloved project Ukraine, and merely because he's standing for election and looks like he's going to win, he's at risk of being sent to prison. And, of course, he's been manhandled, as you rightly said, just after he's had an operation

and all of those things. So, you know, this is a pretty sinister thing that is playing out here. But you're absolutely right. What do people in Romania think? What do they do? How are they going to respond to this? Now, I will say this over the last couple of weeks and months since the election, the first election, result was cancelled. I have seen that even some people on the left in Romania who disagree profoundly with your gasco have come forward, come out and said this was completely wrong.

what was done canceling the election was entirely undemocratic, that it violates the fundamental principles of democracy in the most obvious and extreme ways. So there is already pushback in Romania, not just from people on the rights, but people right across the political spectrum in Romania, and people are protesting. But this is the problem with the EU. We're discussed it before. It is Hotel California. If you go in, you can't very easily get out. Now, maybe Romania can. Maybe you could find a way to claw back. Maybe protests will grow. Maybe, as I said, there'll be a reversal of stance. Maybe your guest could be elected. I have to say, at the moment, all of that looks very unlikely before May, you know, 60 days away. But, you know, maybe that will happen.

and maybe in time, Romania will be able to carve out a place in the EU in order to change, to secure its own position. Well, I don't think it can because my own view is that provided you remain in the EU, they will always go on coming after you, even if you elect someone like your Gerscu to lead you. Now, we were recently in Hungary, and you said that in Hungary they were able to see off this latest attempt, the previous attempt, well, the EU, to cobble together a coalition. The previous. A previous one, exactly.

And to, you know, well, they're doing it all over again. We were hearing all about this whilst we were in Hungary. They even found a person to lead this movement. And we, you know, we read all the time about what a charismatic individual this person is, all that. So, I mean, you know, this never stops whilst the EU is what it is and whilst the country is inside it, either they control your politics or you go out or you have to leave. Even if you leave, because we've discovered in Britain, they still can control your politics. But, but, I mean, the fact is that whilst you're in the EU, they think. control your politics entirely. We've seen that in Greece, which we both know, we've seen that in

Cyprus. We've seen that in all sorts of places. Yeah, it's a it it's a project which, which has a goal to control your your country from top to bottom. I mean, it goes to to control the economics, the money via the euro, the travel. We saw it with the sanctions against Russia. We close off EU territory. All of a sudden, we're talking about EU territory, not the territory of Greece or the territory of Romania or Poland. No, we're going to shut down EU territory. And that's what they did. They control the media and they shut down all the media as well.

And they're controlling now the judicial and the political. Yeah. So, I mean, there's really nothing left. I mean, at the end of the day, the leaders of Europe, the prime ministers and the presidents of EU member states are nothing more than governors. Viseroys. I mean, that's all they are, really. Yeah. They're not really, leading a country.

I would put it even lower, actually. I'd say they're functionaries. Functionary, yeah. I mean, that's all they basically are at the end of the day. And once upon a time, you know, elections, when they were real, they did throw up eccentric and unusual people. And that was part of the wave of politics. The we even, you know, text of politics, you texture of politics, you had all sorts of astonishing individuals thrown up right across Europe. And that was how, that was the Europe, the politics I grew up with.

I remember all sorts of eccentric personalities, for example, in the British House of Commons. And they always had something interesting to say, and they often took things in all kinds of directions. I used to remember how in the 1970s people used to say that Margaret, Thatcher was eccentric, just to say, she would not be elected, electable. A person like that would not be electable in the EU today. Yeah. The crazy part about all of this is it's over the dumbest excuse, the TikTok. I mean, it's so laughable.

This entire narrative that they've cobbled together is so ridiculous and so laughable, but they're doing it. Yes. They're laughing in everyone's face. They're going through with this. They're canceling elections based on a bogus TikTok meddling claim, which has been completely debunked. But they don't care. No.

They don't care either. And Georgiecu, I just go back to the actual candidate. Like you said, he didn't ask to leave the European Union. He didn't say such a thing. Nor has Orban, to be fair. Nor has Fizzo. No. They just don't like some of the policies of the EU center, for example, escalating with Russia.

They don't want a full-scale war with Russia, God forbid. I mean, this is where we've come to. If you don't agree 100%, not even 99, 100% with the center, then you're out. You know, they'll figure out some sort of scandal like they did in Austria with the Kurtz. I remember that as well. We covered that as well. I mean, they'll always find a way to remove the dissenters, the opposition. And in this case, I think they're really taking it to an extreme level.

But, I mean, I don't know, this is where we're heading towards, right? I mean, we're heading towards a very, a very dark period in the European Union. I believe. Absolutely. And in Romania, we are there. We're there. I mean, when somebody gets arrested and charged, simply because they want to stand in a presidential election.

In other words, they want to participate in democracy. And, you know, he's not said anything, you know, about abolishing democracy or doing anything of that kind. I mean, he's not said anything like that. I mean, simply for wanting to stand and in an election, put forward his program to the Romanian people, do so in accordance with the Constitution and the law and all of that. Even when they were arrested on Smorkersbrot, vague and indefinable charges,

well, you know, I think one of them, you know, was that he was, you know, misrepresenting things to people. Politicians in elections, they don't misrepresent things. I mean, you know, please. But I mean, you know, that's apparently now apparently a criminal defense in Romania or, or, or so it would see. I mean, when people do this sort of thing, then as you said, you can already see that the country is already there. We will get probably at the end of this process in Romania,

a government whose legitimacy, many, many millions of people in Romania are going to start to question. And, you know, soon or later, as we said many times, a move towards this kind of authoritarianism across Europe is going to provoke a massive response, particularly given that this repressive machinery that the EU is operating is about the only thing it does well? Yeah, but my final question is that it's going to elicit a response, but it's going to take a long time for any change to be made.

I mean, you know, France, even though people are unhappy with Macaron, he's still there. Germany just elected basically a worse version than Schultz and the traffic-like coalition. Now they've got this bonehead merch in there who's going to be 100 times worse. It doesn't, it's not going to change. I mean, people could be upset or angry or discouraged and maybe they're going to wake up. Maybe you're going to see some parts of the population that are going to wake up to the reality of what the EU is. is. But, I mean, we're talking many, many years for all of this to resolve. And the EU doesn't really care. And NATO doesn't really care, do they? I mean, they're just going to continue forward with the

program. And if it means they have to go into bank accounts, like in Cyprus and take money, or if they have to put austerity programs like they did in Ireland and Greece and Portugal, they'll do that as well. if they have to put together scandals to remove candidates, like in Austria, they'll do that. And if they have to cancel elections, they don't care. I mean, it's obvious they really don't care. The center of Europe believes that they have this absolute power. And no matter how upset people may be, there's nothing that they can, they feel. There's nothing that they can really do about it anyway.

So they're just going to continue forward with the program. I mean, is that pretty much work? Can I also say, I mean, they don't just think they have the absolute power to do this. They believe they have the absolute right to do this. I mean, you know, it's difficult for some of us to believe this, but these people do believe in their project. I mean, it has obsessive, even frenzied quality, it is to me. And, you know, it has no and I think remotely attractive. about it. But, you know, undoubtedly they do believe in it and they absolutely are determined

to see it implemented and you're absolutely one. Now, it will take, it will happen. As I said, eventually this will break down, but it may take five years, it may take 10 years, it may take 20 years. The damage that has already been done to Europe is profound. I mean, bear in mind when the single market was introduced in the early 1990s, I remember reading all kinds of articles saying, you know, this is going to make the European economy the greatest, the most advanced in the world, that Europe would be the world's leader in productivity, that it would be the first proper digital economy. I remember all the digital economy. And where are we actually? after all that.

So, I mean, the damage is profound, and it is getting greater. And, you know, by the time we throw this thing off, one does wonder what will be left. And just to say about France, you mentioned France and the fact that Macron is still there, bear in mind there's already attempts to use the criminal law against Marine Repent. The pen. Yeah. You know, and, you know, I receive all sorts of pieces from all kinds of people who say that her party probably did break the laws that people are saying she probably was implicated. If you know anything about France, you know, they all do these things.

Selective prosecutions are supposed to be illegal anyway. The use of the law in a selective way is profoundly obnoxious, especially when it's done for a political purpose, because then it becomes a mechanism of persecution. Doesn't that what we're seeing exactly happen in France? And they blame it out Russia. They blame all of this, on Russia. Absolutely. That's the worst part about it.

And the Russians, you know, we must keep the Russians at bay because if we don't, you know, they'll come and occupy Limonge or Surrey or whatever it is, one of these places. You know, why they would want to, why they would want to advance across Europe and conquer all of these places. Nobody ever explains, by the way, but that's always the justification and the rationalization behind all of this. Yeah. It's no surprise that they want to expand towards Ukraine and towards Moldova and Georgia. Because the EU is, you know, you described it best.

The EU has nothing to do with an economic union or making people. lives better or anything like that, a single market, prosperity. It's a geopolitical project. It's a freaking religion at this point. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. That's it.

Yeah. All right. We'll end it there. The durand. Dot locals.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, bitch you to telegram, rockfin, and X. Go to the Durant shop pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video. Update.

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