The AUR party wants to subject its cadres to a polygraphic test. This is intended to create transparency for voters and demonstrate loyalty to the party.
As is well known, the honesty of politicians is such a thing. This is especially true in election campaigns when candidates make full-blown promises that they no longer remember after the election.
This is also known in Romania. There are four important elections taking place in the seventh largest EU country this year. After the European and local elections held simultaneously on June 9th, citizens will be called to the polls for parliamentary and presidential elections.
“Transparency before voters”
The nationalist Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR) has come up with something special to win the trust of citizens in a super election year. The right-wing protest party, which according to polls can expect more than 20 percent of the vote in the European elections, has asked its candidates and local cadres to undergo a lie detector test.
Press spokesman Dan Tanasa speaks of an integrity test that should create transparency for voters and at the same time check the loyalty of party members. Anyone who goes to war must ensure the team’s cohesion, Tanasa explained in a television interview. Party president George Simion made similarly combative comments: “In my experience, those who show fear, hesitation or resistance to the test are usually traitors who prove to be unreliable in times of need.”
Simion sets a good example. On Monday, the media-savvy politician shared a video on Facebook in which he, wired to a polygraph, answered three sensitive questions: whether he had ever received money for a position, worked for a secret service or damaged the interests of his party on behalf of third parties . Simion answers three times with “nu” (“no”), to which the questioner confirms: “You are sincere!”
Campaign follows disputes
According to experts quoted by the Romanian media, such a short survey is not enough for a serious text. You also learn that the provider of the detector is the company that also supplies a well-known video blogger who subjects prominent couples to a truth test in front of the camera. This fits well with the theatrical nature of Simion’s action.
The timing of the campaign is also interesting. AUR recently made a name for itself with internal disputes. Simion suspended his deputy in a dispute over his candidacy for the post of mayor of the capital Bucharest.
Simion wanted to nominate a controversial publicist, while his deputy stuck with a previous candidate. Cozmin Gusa, Simion’s candidate, has spoken in the past of Russia’s legitimate defensive struggle against Ukraine and blamed the West for the death of Alexei Navalny. A magazine also recently pointed out the contradiction between Gusa’s declared income and his possessions.
Pro-Russian or pro-Romanian?
AUR has long been suspected of serving Russian interests. At least indirect evidence of this is quickly found, as the party is committed to undermining trust in the Euro-Atlantic institutions.
AUR presents itself as a protector of national and Christian values that are being undermined by the corrupt West, and portrays the EU as an overreaching exploiter. Prominent party figures are publicly considering the incorporation of the Romanian minority areas into Ukraine. The party president Simion is persona non grata in Ukraine and Moldova.
Many citizens have so far been reluctant to believe his assurances that he is by no means pro-Russian, but only pro-Romanian. How good that the lie detector has now dispelled these doubts.