Comparative Politics in Europe: Nationalism and Reform

On Romania's annulled election – and the repeat.

Academic and housing activist Enikő Vincze talks to Alex about why December 2024's election result was annulled, and how Romanian politics is following the script of European politics: lawfare, misinformation, techno-populism, and "sovereigntists" who provide the same neoliberal solutions.

• Who are the contenders in the May 2025 election and what do they represent?

• To what extent do Simion and AUR represent an 'anti-system' candidacy? How do they compare to other European radical rightists?

• Is Romanian politics really torn between Brussels and Moscow, or is something else at play?

• How is the Ukraine War, and EU militarisation, playing out in Romania?

• Why does the Right's promise of sovereignty only provide new capitalist alternatives to neoliberal globalism?

• What is the state of the Left and of struggles over housing in Romania?

Links:

• Romanian elections and the agony of neoliberalism: militarization and austerity, with or without “sovereigntists”, Enikő Vincze, Internationalist Standpoint

• Fractured Romania, Costi Rogozanu, Sidecar

• Romania Redivivus, Alexander Clapp, New Left Review