Romanian far-right groups unite under one umbrella - Nationalist Bloc

  On 23rd September, in Brasov there was launched Blocul National (the National Bloc) made up of Camarazii Romania (Comrades Romania), a group followed on Instagram with 2843 followers, Honor et Patria, present on Facebook with twenty thousand followers, and Casus Belli which operates on Telegram with 1667 followers.   The event was attended by Romanian nationalist rock bands such as Clasicmetric, Rotaru, Post-Soviet Kids, Brigada 2, as well as Hobbit from Italy who went on stage and were supported by nationalist speeches by the Romanian wannabes, Serbian activists or Italian far-right politicians.   According to the official communication after the event, the Nationalist Bloc aims to be a platform that "brings together organisations, informal groups and individuals who adhere to common values".   The main values would be, according to the platform launched in Brasov, "the promotion of faith, values and national identity, the defence of the fundamental freedoms of citizens, the support of the family and a healthy lifestyle, the preservation of the traditional way of life of European civilisation, as well as the formation of collaborative relationships with other similar platforms and organisations abroad, with the aim of defending Europe, independent and sovereign nations".   Cosmin Popa, specialist in the history of Russia and former USSR, says that, from the list of objectives and values ‘generous at first sight’ an essential one is missing: democracy’. The proposed agenda seems taken from President De Gaulle’s sovereignist programme, except that, in fact,’ it comes from Russian propaganda’, says Popa.   Comrades, one of the founding associations, is close to the Dinamo gallery. It is one of the organisations that disrupted the Romania-Kosovo football match. It promotes messages against feminism or LGBT communities. One post states that "feminism exists to demonise men, make women ugly and destroy the family unit".   On banners they display at football matches, they identify themselves as followers of the legionary movement in Romania and have demonstrated for keeping the name Mircea Vulc?nescu for a street in Bucharest. Mircea Vulc?nescu was a Romanian far-right, xenophobic and anti-Semitic philologist, philosopher, publicist, sociologist and poet who served in the Antonescu government.   On 25 August 2021, several ultras organisations, including the Comrades, publicly protested for limiting access to stadiums for unvaccinated people.   The declared leader of the Romanian Comrades is Bogdan Mihai Alecu. He has been employed at EoN in Sibiu since 2020 and was promoted to business analyst a month ago. He has a degree in International Relations and a Master's in History from the University of Bucharest, as well as an internship at the University of Ruhr, also in History. He frequently writes for the Dinamo1984 club magazine and is a member of the club's supporters' gallery.   Another group present at the formation of the Nationalist Bloc was Honor et Patria, set up by the present leader of the  Alliance for Romanians' Union (AUR - opposition), George Simion. In an interview offered to Ultra magazine, in 2019, when he ran for the European Parliament elections as an independent candidate, George Simion presented the beginning of Honor et Patria.   "In 2003 I founded Honor et Patria with a group of friends, the first match being Romania - Luxembourg, in Ploiesti, at the Astra stadium. (...) I remain a member of the group today, more than 15 years later, and I try to make it to as many matches as possible."   Honor et Patria was one of the groups in the stadium that boycotted the Romania - Kosovo match, on the grounds that the match should "never take place". And the leader of AUR took a stand in favour of the one supported by the gallery. "We reconfirm to our Serbian partners that the Romanian state, through all its institutions, respects the territorial integrity of Serbia (...) Romania recognises the territorial integrity of Serbia, and Kosovo is part of Serbia," George Simion told a press conference, according to News.ro.   The Telegram channel Casus Belli - with 1,660 followers - was the one that promoted the Brasov event the most. It revealed that the Italian identity and nationalist rock band Hobbit 1994 left at the end of the concert with a gift - a flag of Romania with a portrait of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899 -1938 - a Romanian extreme-right, fascist, anti-communist and anti-Semitic politician, the founder and leader of the extreme-right organization the Legionary Movement, also known as the Legion of the Archangel Michael and the Iron Guard, from interwar Romania) printed on it. Before the event, Hobbit thanked "my comrades from Romania, the heirs of Captain Codreanu, for their invitation and hospitality".   Cooperation with international organisations    In addition to the 1994 Hobbit band, extremist groups from Italy and Serbia participated in the Nationalist Bloc launch event. The president of Fortezza Italia was Emanuele Tesauro.   He gave a speech in which he stressed "the need to reiterate the role of a Europe of peoples and homeland united by common roots and millenary traditions against a European Union at the service of the interests of global bankers", according to the group's Facebook page.   More discreet were activists from Srbska Akcija, a far-right group in Serbia. With them, the Romanian Comrades have a longer history. The far-right organisation from Serbia ‘ Srbska Akcija’ (Serbian Action) announced in September, on their site, that the fans of the football team from Romania, among whom members of  Comrades  chanted ‘ Kosovo is Serbia’ during a match in Bucharest.   In Bucharest, on 12th September the match between the national teams of Romania and Kosovo was interrupted for a period of 50 minutes after the fans presented a banner with the message ‘ Kosovo is Serbia’.   On 20th September, the European Football Federation (UEFA) fined the Romanian Football Federation for this pro-Serb chant and ordered Romania to play its next European Championship qualifier in an empty stadium.   Cooperation between the members of “Comrades” and “Srbska akcija” according to the announcements and the posts has lasted for years.   A member of "Comrades", who introduced himself as Georgije, gave an interview to the podcast hosted by "Srbska akcija" in 2020, in which he says: "The element that links Romanian and Serbian nationalists is, of course, Orthodox nationalism. In Romania, from our point of view, you cannot be a true nationalist if you are not close to the church, if you don't go to church, if you don't respect what the church stands for," he said.   Two years before, in 2018, the representatives of "Srbska akcija", according to their website, were in Romania to pay homage to Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, who was the Romanian leader of the National-Fascist Iron Guard - Legion of Archangel Michael. In an announcement on the "Srbska akcija" website, it was stated at the time that there was "true friendship" between them and the "Comrades".   Cosmin Popa: All extremist groups started from small marginal groups   Historian Cosmin Popa says that, although they seem marginal, the far-right groups reunited in the Nationalist Bloc represent a dangerous movement which could be included in a European trend of radicalization.   "This is a phenomenon we have encountered and continue to encounter in Central and South-Eastern European countries. We saw it very strongly in Ukraine in the 2000s, in Serbia, certainly in Bulgaria, in Hungary and now, here, in Romania. What is new is that it is asserting very specific political aspirations. When you talk about creating a nationalist bloc, you make a political statement and you acknowledge your aspirations to gain power one way or another. Attacking democracy is the only thing that these splinter groups do in a coherent way, because they don't have a country project, they don't have a political programme," Popa explains.    ‘According to an estimate by BBC in 2019, in Romania there was no coagulation of extremist movements. Now, the non-stated purpose of these groups would be to undermine the democratic foundations, despite the fact that they seem marginal. ‘ All extremist political movements have started from small marginal groups, considered even bizarre at the time, but they have always done nothing but politically and organizationally exploit tense moments, difficult moments that one society or another has gone through’ Popa explains.   The historian says that they will gradually consolidate and will try to seize power. It does not mean they will succeed, but the strong internalization of the movement during the last years would be a favourable element.