Tracing the rise of right-wing authoritarianism in interwar Romania reveals a number of key factors that are too familiar for comfort. Almost every state in Europe had a parliamentary democracy in 1919, but within twenty years more than half had become fascist, authoritarian, or communist dictatorships. In most cases, the collapse of democracy was not… Continue reading “How Democracies Collapse: Lessons From Interwar Romania”
The first time I visited Timişoara, in 2002, it looked drab, depressed and wrecked by Ceauşescu’s appalling communist regime. Today, a remarkable transformation has taken place; with the city on the verge of becoming European City of Culture in 2021, its crumbling city centre has been restored and Timişoara has again become what it once… Continue reading “Review of Victor Neumann, ed., The Banat of Timişoara: A European Melting Pot (London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers, 2019), xvi+495pp.”
Far from the whole of the church supports extreme right-wing platforms, but ethnonationalism does have a long history in Romanian Orthodoxy. In a recent book evaluating the prospects for Romanian democracy, the prominent Austrian historian Oliver Jens Schmitt identified the Romanian Orthodox Church as one of four key institutions that have promoted what he calls… Continue reading “Within the Romanian Orthodox Church, Strong Fascist Currents Still Exist”
In a fascinating CARR Insights Blog last year, Cynthia Miller-Idriss and Daisy Gebbia-Richards argued that ‘love drives extremism’ because the close communities provided by extremist organisations meet activists’ need ‘for human connection, togetherness, belonging and love’. This was certainly true for fascists in interwar Romania, which is my area of expertise. Despite some periods of… Continue reading “Love in a Romanian Fascist Movement”
When leaders of the National Legionary State celebrated Christmas in 1940, it was with a feeling of exuberation and victory. Since it was founded in 1927, the fascist Legion of the Archangel Michael had suffered frequent government persecution and prominent legionaries had spent the past two Christmases in prison or exile. Their ‘Captain’, Corneliu Zelea… Continue reading “A Fascist Christmas: Romania 1940”
Had the referendum passed, this would have made Romania the 15th European country to include a ban on same-sex marriage in its constitution — eighth in the EU. It is easy to dismiss homophobia as a product of the alt-right, and to imagine that only extremists fear and hurt those who don’t conform to a… Continue reading “Romania Puts Homophobia on the Ballot”
Whereas the stereotypical pro-government voter consumes partisan local media; by contrast, the stereotypical protester in Bucharest owns an iPhone and reads international newspapers online. Over the weekend of 10-12 August 2018, Romanian and international media were filled with images of government violence against peaceful protesters. Roughly 120,000 people filled Victory Square in Bucharest on Friday… Continue reading “When Liberals Have Had Enough: A New Wave of Protests in Romania”
It is one of life’s great mysteries why other people vote the way they do, particularly when their favored candidates embrace policies that appear so obviously detrimental to them. ‘The forest was shrinking’, runs an ‘old Turkish proverb’ that has been circulating on the internet in recent months, ‘but the trees kept voting for the… Continue reading “Are Right-Wing Voters Being Duped? Or, Why Sane People Voted Fascist.”