On the last day of January, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced that he would address the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine to find out why George Simion is banned from entering these countries.
Since last April, statements by former Moldovan and Ukrainian officials have emerged claiming that the AUR leader had meetings with FSB agents, but the Romanian authorities have not moved a finger to investigate and clarify these allegations.
Entering a complicated election year has changed the attitude of the Romanian Executive.
"He can't explain it publicly and let's not play around with things that still pertain to... I have access to information. That doesn't mean I'm going to be able to make it public...", stuttered Marcel Ciolacu in a statement, suggesting that he too knows something, but would like others to solve his problem, namely Moldovan and Ukrainian officials.
"The state institutions have determined that George Simion is part of the effort to destabilize the Republic of Moldova and I have also communicated this to Prime Minister Ciolacu. It's a decision of the institutions, the institutions have determined this risk factor and accordingly have taken the decision...", announced publicly .
According to sources, the file, with all Simion's problems, was made by the Security and Intelligence Service in Chisinau, and the government's decision is based on the final report and recommendations made by this "institution".
Simion, inspired by Putin
Simion's closeness to Putin is so visible that one only must compare the statements of the two to see how a theory of the Russian leader quickly reaches the head of the AUR, and how he publicly exposes and assiduously promotes it on social networks.
In an interview by Tucker Carlson with Vladimir Putin, on 9 February, the Russian president spent two hours arguing that "Ukraine is not a state", a theory heavily promoted by Kremlin propaganda which provides "the necessary arguments" to claim that the invasion of the neighbouring country, whose independence Russia itself has officially recognised, is legitimate.
"Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped according to Stalin's will," Putin said in the interview with Tucker Carlson.
"In 1922, when the USSR was founded, the Bolsheviks started to build the USSR and created Soviet Ukraine, which had never existed before," the Russian leader said.
"After World War II, Ukraine received, in addition to the territories that had belonged to Poland before the war, part of the territories that had previously belonged to Hungary and Romania, known today as Western Ukraine. Thus, Romania and Hungary had part of their lands taken from them and given to Ukraine, and they remained part of Ukraine. So, in this sense, we have every reason to say that Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped according to Stalin's will," Vladimir Putin explained.
Simion calls for the dissolution of Moldova
And now, with the phrases "artificial state" and "shaped by Stalin's will" in mind, we return to George Simion, member of the Romanian Parliament, leader of the second largest political party in the country, according to the latest polls, who declares:
"I hate this artificial state called the Republic of Moldova".
"I'm a unionist," Simion said in a Prima TV broadcast.
"I have always been a unionist; I was president of Action 2012. Basically, peacefully, and democratically, by the will of both sides, we were advocating the union of the two Romanian states of today and, therefore, the abolition of the state of the Republic of Moldova, a de facto Stalinist creation. I do not support, and I never reconcile myself with this concept of Moldovan statism. I fought against it", explained George Simion.
All my life I've been banned in Moldova
On Marcel Ciolacu's demands to the Moldovan and Ukrainian prime ministers, the AUR leader said that the bans were related to his political activity, which did not please the leadership there, without commenting on specific accusations by former officials from the two countries about his contacts with FSB agents.
"For my Unionist activity... Everyone knows. All my life I've been banned in the Republic of Moldova. Premier Recean announced at the request of Marcel Ciolacu. Marcel Ciolacu, instead of pursuing the unionist goal of the Romanian nation, is busy discrediting his political opponents. I have a ban in Ukraine as well. Nobody talks about extremism," Simion added.
In two weeks, the AUR leader took the message promoted by Vladimir Putin at the international level, processed it and adapted it to the debate in Romania, coming up with the same idea, but also the same wording, replacing Ukraine with Moldova, two independent states targeted by Russia's expansion.
Putin, February 9, 2024: "Ukraine is an artificial state".
Simion, February 24, 2024: "Moldova is an artificial state".
This mimicry, the use of identical arguments, shows the extent to which AUR is controlled by Moscow's agents.
It also shows something else, the great failure of the Romanian institutions to protect the country, so that the Parliament has become a forum for promoting Moscow's messages and policy in our country.
Existential danger for Romania
ÎIn October 2023, Volodimir Zelensky ămade his visit to șBucharest.
Under the pressure exerted by MP George Simion and Senator Diana Șoșoaca, the Ukrainian President's speech to the Romanian Parliament could not be held, showing, once again, Romania's institutional and political vulnerabilities.
Bucharest's failure is already having consequences. PNL and PSD, the ruling parties, are desperately seeking solutions to manipulate the electoral calendar so that AUR is kept as far away as possible from a victory in the European elections.
According to the latest opinion poll, published at the end of January, the party led by George Simion can get 18.4% of the vote, matching the PNL.
The AUR threat is at the origin of the agreement between the Social Democrats and the Liberals to merge the local elections with the European Parliamentary elections, in reality, a forced action that will produce a major weakening of the democratic system in our country.