There are many suspicions, undoubtedly justified, regarding the logistics, funds, and machinations behind Călin Georgescu’s campaign. I also have such suspicions that mainly point towards late Ceaușescuism and its structures that entered conservation after 1989.
The connection between Mr. Georgescu and the DIE area, Ceaușescu’s golden boys who also kept the regime’s money, is evident. Whether this connection is an explanation for Georgescu’s electoral phenomenon remains to be seen, but Marcel Ciolacu’s statement about the involvement of retired military personnel in the electoral campaign is interesting.
It remains to be seen if there are external implications in the elections on November 24, as the politically wounded prime minister is now talking about. How is it possible that if such involvement existed, as he suggests, he did not know?
But beyond all possible explanations and scenarios, even if correct, separate or even without excluding each other, one fact is indisputable. Călin Georgescu was voted by over 2.1 million Romanians.
We are talking about a man who articulates unimaginable nonsense in a doctrinal and messianic manner, from the idea that through soft drinks, nanochips enter us like in a laptop, to cesarean section being a tragedy that breaks the "divine thread", claiming to have met extraterrestrials, stating that the moon landing never happened.
"Is water just H2O? I don't believe that. Anyway, I honestly tell you that I have nothing to do with this H2O. It is much more. It is information, it is vibration, it is frequency. Water gives you vital information. That's why water is bottled in plastic bottles, so it doesn't give you any information," Mr. Georgescu says.
I won't even discuss the references to historical facts such as the Legionary movement or the gross manipulations like claiming that Mihai Eminescu and Lucian Blaga are banned in schools.
The profile of Călin Georgescu's voters is diverse. Most of them have medium-level education, meaning they have a high school diploma, and are up to 65 years old.
This diverse group also includes 30% of individuals with higher education. I personally know at least two such individuals, absolutely honorable and educated, who have swallowed Georgescu's enormities and validated them through their votes.
Targeting
How can an intellectual accept that "there is no other science besides Jesus Christ"? Because this nonsense has been packaged in messages that algorithmically targeted the subject's sensitivities.
Călin Georgescu had a message for each vulnerable category. For the nostalgics, well ensnared in groups where you were probably invited with photos from the Ceaușescu propaganda album, he delivered the nationalist socialist discourse of Ceaușescu's regime.
For conspiracy theorists, an extremely extensive category in Romanian society, he had a richer offer than the largest online store in Romania. Nothing is as it seems, everything is upside down, nothing should be believed, the only truth is the one you can grasp, even if it's bottled in plastic.
For mystics, Georgescu's attraction is even greater the higher the intensity of mysticism, and implicitly the more they have felt cornered for their beliefs.
For those unfit for today's society, he offers typical escape solutions, a return to tradition, seed sowing, sovereigntism, victimization, demonization of the enemy who can only be the depraved West. For those scared of war, dissociation from Ukraine and NATO, universal peace under the wing of a strong Russia.
All spoken with a scholarly, calm, self-assured tone, like a teacher, and with a remarkable, albeit fluid, articulation.
There are also subliminal messages. For example, if you listen with closed eyes to Georgescu's statements, you might get the impression that you are being spoken to by Sergiu Nicolăescu, in his roles as a justiciar, hero, Mihai Viteazul. For the more elaborate, the tonalities can evoke the intonation of Zelea Codreanu.
The Discernment Test
Validating Georgescu's nonsense is, above all, a mirror held up to Romanian society.
1. Chronic lack of education. And I'm not just referring to the accumulation of information, but also to educating critical thinking. The reflex to verify, to ask questions, to not digest everything fascinated by the melody of a voice like a boa constrictor of a very skilled guru well-trained in brainwashing.
For someone educated, how can a man who, for example, is both a Legionary sympathizer, of Marshal Antonescu and the Russians be credible? How can someone who has at least been to school or has children as students believe that Blaga and Eminescu are banned?
Years of destroying the education system have given birth to generations without the slightest general culture and incapable of discerning between lies and truths and identifying at least monumental absurdities.
2. Superficiality. The internet and especially social networks, TikTok in particular, have generated an extremely dangerous addiction to minimal visual statements, delivered in 30 seconds, without details and arguments, in short and simple sentences, like a pill to feed fears, expectations, frustrations, nostalgias.
3. Chronicized conspiracism, which is both a consequence of lack of education and the loss of trust in traditional sources of information. Too often lied to, it is true, people have come to believe that they are lied to all the time and that the only credible source of information is the unofficial one, the more controversial, the more powerful.
4. Discrediting traditional politics failed in ridicule and completely detached from the citizen's agenda. Georgescu pours out only absurdities, but at least he talks about what interests ordinary people.
Mr. Călin Georgescu refuses to answer press questions at this time, issuing only aggressive monologues towards journalists at the gate, which he then throws in their faces.
An attitude aimed at avoiding key questions, including regarding his activities before 1989.
If this attitude, which directly echoes Klaus Iohannis's arrogance, will irritate, if there will be enough Romanians like Mr. Ștefan Mandachi who will realize whom they voted for and will change their minds, remains to be seen.
One thing is certain, the elections on December 8 are for Romania much more than a simple political test. They are a test of discernment and a great mirror of our mental state.