Fear and anger as the “Battle of the Romanian Democracy”

There are several shops in the Romanian village, a barbecue and a flock of wandering dogs.

He also has a few voters who wanted the candidate at the right to become the president.

Pienni, a little more than an hour away from the capital, is not alone.

Last November, Kalin Kalin, who is fond of Vladimir Putin and is not a NATO supporter – came with extremist fringe to win the first round of Romanian presidential election with 23% of the vote.

He did even better, with 24%.

Then the Constitutional Court abandoned all the elections to an unprecedented step, citing intelligence that Russia was raised by the Internet Company.

In the subenies, the young voter called these claims “lies”, angry with canceled voting. “They had to let him run to see what was happening,” Maria says.

A new newsletter will take place in May, but Gorgez was banned.

In Bucharest, fans who took to the streets shouted that the judges were destroying democracy. A handful for a short time collided with the police that used tear gas.

Now the nationalist politician George Simion has entered the race and instead questioned.

Many Romanians are afraid of the basic European values ​​of their country and its global alliances, still in danger.

“We are at the Center for the Battle of Ideas. We have no options here,” this is how one democracy activist describes the mood. “Fighting now”.

In the village of Pienni there are less talk about values ​​and Russian intervention, more about money in pockets. Or rather the lack of it.

Aside the main road, where the movement alternates between heavy trucks and horses and trolleys, men buy burnt pieces of kebabs, and pensioners talk on dusty benches.

The metal public telephone box is benting out of shape, its sign hangs as probably for years.

The income here is small, the prices rise, and life is difficult, as in most of Romania.

“I want the brutal to straighten everyone. They cheated us. They promised us more retirement money,” the middle-aged woman first speaks, and then becomes deadly. “The rest did nothing for us here!”

The Ionela rural store is just as disappointed.

“Young people end up college here and can’t work, so they go abroad. It is not normal. We need our young people to take place to work,” she complains from the store counter.

Millions of Romanians work elsewhere in the EU and send money home to their families. In the poon you see where some of this get into all re -new homes.

The whole family of ionella voted in favor of the bridge. He promised to reduce taxes, she believes, but it does not seem to register her right ideology.

A man who praised extremist figures from Romania’s past, he is now under the investigation of the group with “fascist, racist or xenophobic characteristics”.

After the interrogation, the politician was lifted, giving the fascist salute.

Other residents of the village in the poon saw this and know all about the muddy heroes with whom George was linked.

Hearing his name, one pensioner grabs her crutch and possesses her as a machine gun, shouting he was dangerous.

Another told me that people were suspicious of the one who made famous for nowhere and his focus on sovereignty over economic meaning.

“He tells us that we don’t need Europe to help us with money. So, how will we live? Let’s see: Europe feeds us!” she says.

Romania’s vote became a topic of conversation far beyond the streets of the Polni or even Bucharest.

If Vice President J. D. Vnes shocked Europe a speech in Munich, saying that the greatest threat of the EU came from within, not from Russia, he repeatedly referred to Romania.

He stated that the country’s elections were abolished on “contrived suspicions” under “huge pressure” with the EU. Then Elon Musk struck the court movement as “crazy” on X.

Moscow would like this.

Russia’s external intelligence agency has come out in full with the United States that the “Liberal mainstream” in Europe suffered dissent.

This is from the authoritarian regime.

“This is a new world in which we live. This is the ideology of Maga. They are trying to find partners, and their partners are extreme parties throughout Europe,” this is how journalist Ionite sees US-Russia alignment.

For him, the abolition of the presidential election was not only constitutional but also justified.

“We are experiencing a hybrid war, pressure democracy,” he claims. The threat is real.

But Romania, which borders Ukraine and holds a large NATO base, is now also dealing with US hostility.

“This is a dramatic change. America is our ally, the largest and most important security supplier for Romania,” notes Ion Ionis. “We need this partnership to go on and be stronger.

“People are worried.”

For Florin Buhchen, the dispute is not only political – it is personally.

His apartment apartment, a modernist gem, is a mini -museum “dedicated to gay -memory.”

On one wall there is a large photo of the 1930s of three gays under arrest. In the next room is a wooden closet, which once showed memorable objects of the Romanian fascist era in the antique shop. Now it contains gay images.

Romania only decriminalized homosexuality in 2001.

“No state museum will accept such donations,” says Florin, so he and his partner demonstrate the exhibits at the invited guests.

A great LGBT -activist, he had so many threats in the heat of this election campaign that security services warned him to be careful.

Even when the cruel disappears as fast as it appeared, the atmosphere is feverish.

George Simion, who is now considered a counter, was investigated after the calls that election officials be “alive” for banning the sturgeons out of the race.

It characterizes its nationalist Aura as a “patriotic party of conservative essence”, the pillars of which are “faith, nation, family and freedom.”

LGBT-law Mozaiq has warned of a splash of anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic rhetoric in recent weeks. He was supposed to warn the police after social media reports calling for attacks on his office.

Thus, Florin Bukhchen is afraid that his country is back to the past.

“By 2001, it was absolutely impossible for us to breathe. Now we hear the same rhetoric again and again,” he says.

Worse, the US, Russia and Romanian are far the same.

“Obviously, our rights are fragile and the world is overloaded, so we must continue this battle,” the activist warns. “It’s not just for our community. It is for the Romanian Democracy.”