a. ^3 deputies from NR currently sit within AUR's parliamentary group
The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Romanian: Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor, AUR, meaning "gold" in Romanian)[28] is a right-wing populist[11][12] and nationalist[29][5][30] political party active in Romania and Moldova. It was founded on 19 September 2019 ahead of the 2020 Romanian local and legislative elections. The party president is George Simion. The party ran in the local elections, not obtaining many votes and only winning in three towns. However, in the legislative elections, the AUR won 9% of the votes in all of Romania and its diaspora, thus becoming the fourth-largest party in the country at the central level, which surprised observers.
In the 2020 Romanian legislative election, AUR obtained a high percentage of the votes, being called as the "surprise" of Romania. The results also increased the popularity of the party on the Internet.[12][63][64] The party came first among Romanians in Italy, the largest group of the Romanian diaspora, and ran a close second among Romanians in France and Romanians in Spain. It also scored first in Cyprus.[65] AUR's candidate for prime minister was Călin Georgescu, who worked for the United Nations for 17 years.[66] According to a statement released by AUR, between 7 and 8 December 2020, 15,000 Romanians joined the party in just 24 hours. The party is supposedly to have 46 members of parliament in the 2020–2024 Romanian legislature, according to the same statement.[67]
The party achieved good results in rural areas of Moldavia and Dobruja, areas traditionally dominated by the other big parties. Its most significant percentages were in the counties where the Romanian Orthodox Church has a strong influence and a large number of practicing believers. These are Suceava (14.72%), Botoșani (14.62%), Neamț (14.4%), Constanța (14.2%), and Vrancea (13.43%).[68] The party speculated the new communication channels (social networks) in a similar way to the Greater Romania Party (PRM) of the late 1990s - early 2000s, which used the newspaper "România Mare" (Greater Romania) as a communication channel, reaching high electoral scores. Another example is the People's Party – Dan Diaconescu (PP-DD), which was propelled with the help of the OTV television channel.[68]
Recorder, a Romanian online publisher, argues that the election campaign of AUR has adapted to the rural environment, which lacks modern technology, relying more on messages desired by the masses than on a coherent ideology. In this way, they argue, in addition to a core of supporters who voted for radical messages, there is also the wider category of electorate strictly attracted by populist messages.[68]
December 2020–present
On 22 January 2021, Simion announced that the party would officially adhere at European level to the "European Conservatives and Reformists Party" after going on visits in Poland and Brussels, Belgium.[69] Simion announced on 15 March 2021 that the AUR had intentions to start operating in the Republic of Moldova on the occasion of the Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania celebrated every 27 March.[70] The party was officially launched, as previously stated, on 27 March 2021, and the elected president of the party was Vlad Bilețchi, a renowned Moldovan unionist.[71] This new section of the AUR in Moldova later participated in the Moldovan snap parliamentary elections of 11 July 2021.[72]
On 2 October 2021, AUR organised a 15,000–20,000 people-strong protest against COVID-19 restrictions at the Victory Square in Bucharest, drawing both national and international attention and being the most attended protest in Romania since the start of the pandemic.[73][74] On 5 October 2021, a motion of no confidence initiated by AUR, but legally proposed by PSD, was passed with 281 votes, thus dismissing the Cîțu Cabinet.[75]
On 27 March 2022, AUR held its first party congress at the Palace of the Parliament. On it, it was intended to elect the party's president. There were two candidates, Simion and Dănuț Aelenei, AUR deputy in the Constanța County. Aelenei claimed to have nominated himself with the simple intention of showing that AUR was a democratic party and that he did not intend to "expel" Simion from the party, admitting that he was less well-known compared to him. 784 voted for Simion and 38 for Aelenei, making Simion the party's sole president after having previously shared leadership with Târziu, who became president of the party's CNC.[54] In November 2022, Simion met with Israel's ambassador to Romania, Reuven Azar. The encounter drew outrage from some Israelis and diaspora Jews, as AUR is officially boycotted by Israel due to its history of antisemitism.[76][77]
After the 2024 European Parliament Election, AUR gained 5 seats in the EU Parliament, with a total of 6 seats, receiving 14.9% of the total votes, ranking 2nd behind the CNR.[81] AUR previously held only 1 seat in the European Parliament.[82] After the 2024 Romanian Local Elections, they are also expected to win some seats in county and local councils; however, not all votes have been counted nationally as of June 12, 2024, with results only available in some counties.
Ideology
AUR is young as a party, but it didn't come out of nowhere. It brings together some people whose history is linked to the late period of communism. Its candidates are experts in propaganda, intellectuals with more or less open sympathy for legionnaires and legionary or pro-legionary intellectuals, businessmen and itinerant politicians who wander from one radical party to another.
According to the party's website, AUR's ultimate goal is to achieve the unification of all Romanians "wherever they are located, in Bucharest, Iași, Timișoara, Cernăuți, Timoc, Voivodina, Italy, or Spain", while wanting to unite Romania and Moldova together, as well as land with Romanian speakers in neighboring countries.[84] The website names four pillars for the party: family, nation, Christian faith, and liberty.[48][56] The party characterizes its members as "the defenders of the Church".[61] It is opposed to "gender ideology" and believes that a nation has no chance of surviving "unless it cultivates the original pattern of the classic family".[49]
The party's representatives became popular on social media as a result of their positioning against measures taken by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading members, such as Șoșoacă (later expelled), gained thousands of followers. AUR has been described as supporting "anti-medicine, anti-vaccination" rhetoric.[56] This accusation was rejected by George Simion, president of AUR, claiming that the party supports the "freedom of choice".[85] The party's manifesto opposes secularism and condemns atheism, and claims that Christians are persecuted in Romania.[50] The party has been critical of the impact of the local autonomy of Hungarians in Romania on the rights of ethnic Romanians in the centre of the country (where the Hungarians are the majority),[49] leading to accusations of being Magyarophobic.[12] The latter accusation was rejected by the president of AUR,[86] and the party denounced the media, accusing media outlets of spreading false information about its campaign.[citation needed] Simion has cited Law and Justice and Fidesz, the ruling parties in Poland and Hungary respectively, as some of his models.[87][88] Despite this, AUR has also expressed deep criticism of Fidesz, stating that it would not join the same group in the European Parliament as Fidesz, due to its claims on Romanian territory.[89] However, AUR later reversed its stance, expressing openness to Fidesz joining the European Conservatives and Reformists.[90]
AUR wishes to position Romania as a leader in central and eastern Europe within the European Union and to integrate the Republic of Moldova into Romania,[5][6][91] whilst also being Eurosceptic.[6][92] The party is pro-NATO and views the integration of Moldova into Romania as strengthening NATO's eastern flank.[49] The party also takes a strongly pro-Israel stance, supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank.[93] It supports the Serbian stance on the political status of Kosovo, considering Kosovo to be part of Serbia.[94] By 2023, the party had become critical of Romanian military support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War, suggesting that the war is "not ours". AUR also criticised the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania, and Simion has been banned from entering Ukraine.[95] Nevertheless, the party leadership is critical of relations with Russia, with Simion calling for the expulsion of the Russian Ambassador and closing Russian consulates in Romania following Russian threats against Romania in December 2023.[96] Simion has called for Western nations to "stop exporting wars", suggesting that the downfall of the "strong Syrian state" during the Syrian Civil War had increased illegal immigration.[97]
AUR wishes to ensure Romania's self-sufficiency in energy, the prosecution of those deemed responsible for mismanaged post-Communist privatisation projects, and a fight against illegal logging by banning the export of non-processed wood.[87] Additionally, AUR wishes to reform and modernize the education system, with a focus on reducing the overhead of political administration in order to improve the quality and the availability of education in Romania.[citation needed] The party has a senate, which is equivalent to the National Executive Committee of other Romanian parties such as the PSD, the National Liberal Party (PNL), and the Save Romania Union (USR).[98]
^Jacek Lepiarz; Bernd Riegert; Robert Schwartz; Keno Verseck (20 September 2023). "Ukrainian grain: Why are eastern EU members banning imports?". Deutsche Welle. However, the extreme right-wing nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party is gaining ground. AUR has a pro-Russian stance, and one of its policies is the unification of all Romanians in one state, including those in the northern Bukovina region, which is part of Ukraine.
^Gilles Ivaldi; Emilia Zankina (8 March 2023). The Impacts of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine on Right-Wing Populism in Europe. European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS). p. 259. doi:10.55271/rp0010. ISBN9789464755480. In parallel, the media chronicled a vast constellation of AUR members with a record of avowedly pro-Russian positions in the public sphere.
^Multer, Alison (18 May 2021). "Anti-Semitic Incidents Put Focus On Romania's Dark Role During Holocaust". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 13 October 2021. The AUR routinely rejects accusations that it is anti-Semitic. But Muraru called it "a neo-fascist party that is neo-Legionary and anti-Semitic," and said it should be isolated.
^Clej, Petru (21 December 2020). "AUR și Mișcarea Legionară. Cât de valabilă este comparația între cele două partide". G4 Media (in Romanian). Retrieved 9 October 2021. Traian Sandu este de părere că antisemitismul Mișcării Legionare este înlocuit la AUR de anti-maghiarism, remarcile anti-semite apărând doar la nivelul declarațiilor, ca de pildă atacurile împotriva lui George Soros sau unele declarații publice ale lui Sorin Lavric.
^"Hungary's MEGA presidency — or just meh?". Politico. 25 June 2024. But according to a top new MEP in AUR, which now has six seats in the European Parliament and joined the ECR last week, Orbán is still welcome in the group. "We've always advocated for a big group," Claudiu Târziu told Playbook's Nick Vinocur, adding that the problem was a lack of communication with Fidesz.
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