Twenty percent of Romanians live outside the country – a total of 5 million people
In the first round of the election on 4 May, the Romanian far right obtained even higher results outside its borders than it did within – Simion came first with more than 40 per cent of the vote in Romania, but took more than 60 per cent of the vote in the diaspora.
Emigrants likely consume less traditional media of their home country than people who still live in their home country, so they are more likely to form their opinion based on the (mis)information that they are fed on social media and hearsay gossip instead. Simion in particular is apparently very good at meme messaging: https://euobserver.com/digital/ar13f54193
Social media memes are very good for spreading populist propaganda like “easy solutions to complex problems” and “hatred of the other”, but bad at nuance and informed discussions. They’re a populist’s wet dream.
The emigrants also do not face the real consequences of their choice. If Simion increases corruption/graft in Romania, hijacks traditional media, breaks education, … The Romanian not living in Romania, will be far less affected by this than the people living in Romania. Same as what happens with the German Turks who vote for Erdogan: they don’t have to build their lives in Turkey, but thanks to the wrecked economy their Euros are worth much more, so they get to live as kings when on vacation in Turkey.
Came here to say this, the similarities to Erdogan’s voters are striking.
In addition, this is a protest vote, very much against something seen by many Romanians as an unholy alliance between a classical liberal party (on paper) and the spiritual descendants of the old communist party. At least that’s what my Romanian friends are telling me.
This is the keg, and Simion’s brand of nationalistic populism is the powder.
ZeroGravitas as in the artist?
Also, are your friends leaning the same way?
No, ZeroGravitas is just my modest tribute to Iain M. Banks.
And fuck no, they’re appalled by the rise of braindead populism. We have a saying in our business: for every complex problem there’s a solution that’s simple, easy to understand and completely wrong. Can’t remember whose quote that is, but it perfectly captures the populist propaganda.
I Like that. Sounds like most of the solutions they use at my work that I have to deal with afterwards.
So the same far-right populism on the rise story as everywhere else?
I truly hope the fall of the USA will put an end to it. It already does put a damper on it afaics.
I call them the “far dumb”. They borrow idiotic propaganda from both left and right. Like: the foreigners are to blame for the state of the country, we’ll kick them out and nationalise the industry and split the profits with everyone. Except for the lazy bums in public administration, which we’re going to fire en masse.