Romania’s far right evokes Vlad the Impaler — and Donald Trump

Romania’s ultranationalist AUR party has few foreign role models — it prefers to glorify local historical figures including Vlad the Impaler, the gruesome medieval ruler who inspired the novel Dracula.

But one notable exception is the former US president and current Republican frontrunner. An AUR campaign centre in Bucharest is draped in a huge portrait of Donald Trump, with the caption “Republicans for freedom”.

Both characters have become a source of inspiration for the upstart far-right party, which rose quickly from a fringe anti-vaccination group in the Covid-19 pandemic to become the main opposition force in Romania ahead of local and EU elections on Sunday, when polls indicate it could scoop up 20 per cent of the votes.

Riffing on his American role model’s slogan, AUR chair George Simion has said he wants to “make Romania great again”. AUR, a play on the word for “gold”, stands for the Alliance for the Union of Romanians — an appeal to reunite with neighbouring Moldova, which was part of Romania before being annexed by the Soviet Union.

Speaking at a recent rally in Mateiaș, the site of a first world war battle in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, Simion — who is expected to run for president in September — sought to portray himself as a patriot in the vein of Vlad the Impaler, whose image was beamed on screens behind him, labelled “protector of the Romanian fatherland”.

Vlad, who ruled Wallachia for several years in the 1450s, became infamous for impaling anyone who disobeyed him. He refused to pay the dues his country was being charged by the Ottoman Empire, fought the sultan’s troops and ultimately lost, fleeing across the Carpathians.

“Stand up after 34 years on our knees, and look directly in the eyes of those who tried to subjugate us!” Simion told cheering supporters.

At another rally, an actor dressed as Vlad joined Simion on stage, holding up a plastic sword.

The party has moderated some of its positions, including on opposing Holocaust education in schools. But it retains a hard-right stance on migration. Simion told the Financial Times: “It’s not a good solution the way the governments in European Union countries tried to deal with immigration, for example, mixing civilisations, mixing religions, result[ing in] bomb attacks in Paris, in London, in Berlin.”

At the same time, though not overtly pro-Russian, Simion capitalises on deeply rooted fears among Romanians of being pulled into Moscow’s war in neighbouring Ukraine.

Ukrainian and Moldovan authorities have banned him from their territory on security grounds.

At home, Simion is being investigated for alleged electoral fraud linked to the signatures collected by his party for its candidates to the European parliament. Simion has denied the claims, and retorted that the “deep state” aimed to ban the AUR.

“Whether or not we come out in handcuffs . . . go vote on Sunday,” he posted on Facebook.

Political analysts say public discontent with the mainstream parties that have ruled Romania in recent years has allowed the AUR to flourish.

“AUR fills the political void created by the grand coalition,” said Costin Ciobanu, a researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark. He said that people who felt left behind are galvanised by AUR, a party whose “conservatism and criticism of the west are strikingly similar to a Russian discourse”.

However, AUR supporters do not see the party — or themselves — as pro-Russian.

Avoiding a direct conflict with Moscow was not the same as letting Ukraine lose, said Catalin Paraschiv, who was in the crowd at the AUR rally. “We need to stand by our neighbours who are at war,” he said. “We need to do more than we have until now.”

Like other far-right forces across Europe, the AUR is trying to moderate its message to broaden its voter base. The party expelled a former leading member, senator Diana Șoșoacă, who is openly pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine. She has founded a splinter party, SOS Romania, that is polling in the single digits.

“Today’s Russia is no longer the Soviet Union,” Șoșoacă told the FT. “I don’t think conditions are present, like in another time, for eastern Europe to fall under a Russian dictatorship.”

Romania’s former president, Traian Basescu, said Russia was a strong dividing line between Șoșoacă and the AUR. “Simion doesn’t give me the impression of being a supporter of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s policies or a supporter of Putin as a person,” he said.

Simion told the FT he supported western sanctions on Russia — although like Hungary’s ruling party, the AUR has reservations about aiding Ukraine. It argues that Kyiv has failed to respect the rights of the Romanian-speaking minority there.

Like many far-right leaders in Europe, Simion is rooting for Trump to return to the White House after US presidential elections in November and deliver on his promise to end the war.

“The number one superstate in the world is the United States, and hopefully, in our view, Mr Trump can stop this [war] and can stop Mr Putin,” he said.