"You can count on our friendship with Israel if correct relations exist between us," George Simion, the head of the nationalist AUR party, says in an exclusive interview.
George Simion is one of the most famous names in Romanian politics at the moment. The 36-year-old politician founded his right-wing Alliance for the Union of Romanians faction a mere three and a half years ago but is already considered a major threat ahead of the elections for the presidency, the Chamber of Deputies, the municipal authorities and the European Parliament, to be held in 2024.
In the previous general elections, which were held about a year and a half after the establishment of the AUR, the party received a tenth of all the parliament seats, becoming the fourth largest faction.
Romania suffers from chronic political instability having had 11 governments in the past decade, mainly due to a divided political map, affairs, scandals as well as a difficult economic situation. The strongest faction in the country is still the Social Democratic Party, a member of the National Liberals, the second largest in the parliament. The rotation between the heads of the parties, which was postponed due to the waves of protest and strikes by the country's teachers, took place this week, and despite the withdrawal of one of the coalition parties, the new government won the confidence of 290 out of 465 members of parliament.
The four basic tenets of the AUR are family, nation, Christianity, and freedom. Behind Simion's desk, a window was designed as a map of Greater Romania, which also includes Moldova, and indeed the faction advocates for the unification of the two nations as used to be under the Kingdom of Romania. This, among others, is why Simion and the AUR are claimed by their opponents to be neo-fascist and pro-Russian.
The AUR defines itself as patriotic and Christian-democratic, seeks to protect the rights of Romanians, values religion, and opposes "gender ideology" and abortion.
Holocaust should not be part of political games
Simion does not take kindly to the fact that some in Romania demand that Jewish history and the Holocaust be taught in all high schools as separate compulsory subjects – such as language, history, and geography - and even passed a law on the matter.
"True, there are a small number of lunatics here who claim that the Holocaust did not happen," he said. "But besides them, no one in Romania denies that this is one of the most terrible events in the history of mankind.
Source - Israel Hayom/Twitter - Image - Reuters