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.
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.
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.
Living in another country you either adapt or become more proud of your origin. The former group is less likely to vote and the later group votes far right.
That can be most clearly seen with groups, which had to choose citizenship, as for example Turks in Germany. For a long time Germany did not allow dual citizenship. That ended up with Turks living in Germany voting for Erdogan, if they had Turkish citizenship. However Turks who became German citizens are much more likely to vote for left leaning parties in German elections.
While Muslim minorities in Europe tend to vote for left parties, predominantly voting for the left in Germany, France or my home country of the Netherlands for example, there’s also the more recent phenomenon of parties established to specifically cater to Muslim voters.
Because many people are easy to be brainwashed with Facebook and Tik Tok and WhatsApp conspiracy theories. And they are also brainwashed in the churches (many people voted for Simion because he is a „man of God“. Such bullshit!). Even educated people. They just stop thinking for themselves. I know people are discontent with political parties, all over the world, there are no real politicians left nowadays, and if there are, they get eaten alive by the other scumbags. But that is no reason to look to Russia to help.
In the article, they are talking about difficult fitting in the societies where they emigrated to. My opinion is, as an immigrant as well, that one has to make the effort to integrate. You cannot expect for that to fall on the shoulders of the citizens where you emigrated. No society is perfect, and we have to accept that. And live where it bests suits us. But voting for anti-EU puppet will not help your life living abroad. You might get kicked out of the EU and be forced to get back to your country.
And EU does not make everything perfect, but one can get involved to force changes there. Not just complain in your WhatsApp group. Will it be better to live like they do in Russia? Become their friends and who knows, maybe in future be sent to fight a war for them? I don’t think so. People should start to think for themselves and not just listen blindly to their preachers.
EU should do something to stop the easy access to propaganda tools for the Russians and Chinese. I would be happy to see Facebook and Tik Tok be banned, they are just rotting people’s minds.
