Just not in the way the Guardian thinks.
The Guardian view on Romania’s annulled election: a wake-up call for democracies
The unprecedented move by the country’s constitutional court last week to annul the results of the first round of the presidential election, amid allegations of Russian interference, is a landmark moment in the increasingly embattled arena of eastern European politics. The decision followed an astonishing surge to first place by a far-right admirer of Vladimir Putin, who had been polling in low single digits until the eve of the election. According to declassified intelligence reports, Călin Georgescu benefited from a vote that was manipulated by various illicit means, including cyber-attacks and a Russian-funded TikTok campaign. Analysts found that about 25,000 pro-Georgescu TikTok accounts became active only two weeks before the first-round vote.
What form did the “manipulation of the vote” by these cyber-attacks take? One would think the Guardian’s leader-writer would be clearer on this point. If it was something like changing the tallies on voting machines (I do not know if Romania even has voting machines), that absolutely would be illicit manipulation of the vote. No doubt Vladimir Putin would be delighted to literally falsify the numbers of votes cast for candidates in the Romanian election if he could, but did he? Give us evidence, or I am going to assume that these alleged cyber-attacks are of a piece with the 25,000 fake TikTok accounts – that is, not attacks at all, just the issuance of propaganda. As I have frequently said, Vladimir Putin belongs at the end of a rope. But that is because he is a mass-murderer, not because he gets a bunch of drudges and bots to say words on the internet.
When I was a kid, I used to turn the dial of our family’s radio to “Moscow” quite often. Radio Moscow wasn’t as good – by which I mean it wasn’t as bad – as Radio Tirana, whose announcer would say “Good night, dear listeners” in a strange voice eerily reminiscent of the evil Dr Crow in Carry On Spying, who I have just found out after half a century was not played by Hattie Jacques but by Judith Furse, only voiced by John Bluthal in order to sound more asexual. (The character is meant to be the forerunner of a race of artificially created superior beings who have gone beyond being male or female.) Neither the supervillainesque lady in Albania or the main Russian presenter, whose English accent was eerily good, had much luck in turning me communist. But I always thought that one of the things that made the UK a democracy was that I was perfectly free to turn the dial to Tirana or Moscow and let them try.
Russia may have influenced Romanian voters but they still had the freedom to vote. The Romanian court has nullified, taken away, that vote which is far worse.
The other candidate in the second round was, I believe, a media personality and also an outsider. Was there any influence on her behalf? If not, the voters rejected the two candidates from the main parties in favour of “anyone else”.
It seems that when something doesn’t go the globalists’ way Russia somehow caused the “bad” thing to happen. Any false, even ridiculous, accusation will do.
Much like “Russia, Russia, Russia” during Trump’s first term.
As I said on here previously the Romanian parliamentary election which took place on 1st December has not, as far as I can tell, attracted a single word of doubt as to its veracity from the guardian et al and has certainly not been annulled.
It’s a bit of a puzzler as to why the cyber-attacks and TikTok campaigns were so narrowly focused.
The candidate who came second in the Romanian Presidential election is a “liberal” leftist – but she also denounced the court. The actions of these unelected judges, not just in Romania but in many countries – including the United Kingdom, are an outrage – they are terrible.
“Democracy as long as our side wins” or “democracy as long as the winner supports the European Union”, which is what is, for example, being pushed on to the country of Georgia (where France 24 television, hardly a “pro Russian” source, shows masked “protesters” pointing lasers into the eyes of policeman and firing rockets at them), is not democracy at all.
The “international community” does not stand for “freedom” as its support for “Hate Speech” laws shows (by the way – Mr Putin also supports “Hate Speech” laws), and you can NOT honestly claim to stand for “my country” if you are waving a European Union flag and support rule by the European Union and the rest of the accursed “international community” (Davos and co).
A masked person who takes to the streets firing rockets (“they are only big fireworks” – I have seen what such a thing can do to a human face – it can remove a human face, blinding the person) because they do not like the outcome of an election, and because they want their country to be ruled by the European Union is, by definition, an enemy of the independence of their country – and they are also an enemy of democracy.
That is true for Georgia, Romania or any other country.
OK, I realize this comment is off topic but the description of the character meant to be a forerunner of the future inspired the comment.
“artificially created superior beings who have gone beyond being male or female.”
Is this not a nearly perfect description of the mindset that not only thinks everything is malleable but that all of such creations would be superior to us run of the mill heterosexual beings.
To this point at least, some things are immutable and primary among those things are our chromosomes being either xx or xy. I know there are some exceptions and I sympathize with them but their unfortunate conditions do not make them superior or particularly insightful as they are apt to be focused on their unfortunate condition. I also sympathize with those who believe themselves to be trapped in the opposite sex’s body. This is a mental illness that needs to be treated, but by treated I do not mean treated by acclaiming them as avatars of the future.
Here in the USA one of the few good things we have left is the First Amendment. It really is very annoying to those to want to bring us into a bright new future where experts and philosopher kings guide us, their subjects, into a blissful existence, where everybody is nice and puppies lick you awake each morning, and, most importantly “the right people are in charge”. The first amendment really screws up those plans. Damn that Madison guy.
As for you in the UK, you are “fortunately” unburdened by such inconveniences as a written constitution, or its burdensome amendment process. So, piece by piece the British government has diluted that most traditional of “rights of an Englishman” so that you don’t quite notice that you aren’t allowed to express your opinion any more.
Thankfully, for you Brits, that means “the right people” can be in charge there. And “the right people” all read the Guardian.
Steve Wilson, the mindset of the decision of the makers of “Carry on Spying” to make the “Dr Crow” character asexual was to create more opportunities for the making of mildly dirty jokes.
The Carry On films were a staple of my childhood, although I didn’t get some of the jokes until I was grown up. As a kid, I also didn’t get all the references to more serious spy movies being spoofed, such as the zither music in the trailer I linked to, a reference to iconic score of The Third Man.
I don’t agree that thinking one is born into the wrong body “is a mental illness that needs to be treated”. Saying that a belief held by an adult is a mental illness in itself, and is thus something that needs to be treated, is a technique of oppression that was used by the Soviet Union among other tyrannies. It would be equally oppressive if the belief concerned were true or false. All I ask is that no one be forced to deny biological realities. (Nor should anyone be forced to affirm them.) As for the spiritual question, if I may call it that, let each person come to their own opinion – or not bother to have any opinion. There are many things in this complicated world upon which I do not have an opinion.
Natalie Solent (Essex)
The Carry On films were a staple of my childhood
Me too. Retrospectively I am sure they were terrible but I think, with your reminding me, I might buy a box set for Christmas. For me anyway, I’m not sure they are really PG enough for my kids 😊
I don’t agree that thinking one is born into the wrong body “is a mental illness that needs to be treated”
I think this is a really tricky problem. Your comments on the potential for abuse of this are very important, but there is a spectrum here. I guess the problem as to whether something is a mental illness or not is, in a sense, a matter of opinion. Human behavior is a bell curve and what you call “normal” is very much dependent on how wide your definition is.
If I can give an example another such “disorder”, insofar as you think it is a disorder is body integrity dysphoria where a person believes that they are an amputee or disabled in some way even though they are not. I read a tragic story a while ago about a sighted woman who believed she was born in a blind woman’s body and she went to great lengths to blind herself. Should medical professionals have helped her? After all if she was determined to pour bleach in her eyes then maybe their help would be better holistically for the woman.
Does she have a mental illness? How wide do we cast the net?
I have a few friends who have autistic children and, although I am not at all an expert, it seems that that current direction of the autism support advocates is to say something like “autism isn’t a condition to be treated but a perspective to be embraced.” Is that true?
Another point of controversy here is with regards to cochlear implants for the deaf children of deaf parents. There is VERY strong opposition in parts of the deaf community against deaf children receiving these life changing devices because they regard deafness as not being a disability. If these were fitted as adults I would say “you are a grown up make your own choices.” Unfortunately they are usually fitted when the child is perhaps around five. Much though I want to respect the parents wishes I just don’t think it is acceptable to deny a child hearing as a form of deaf advocacy.
I think these things challenge the meaning of the words and the assumptions we have in society. I for one think that, though tragic, if a woman wants to pour bleach in her eyes to blind herself as and adult then she should be able to, horrific as it is. But should we consider that normal behavior in our society? Should we lionize her for her bravery? I think not, lest we engender a social contagion of it. And should we allow children to do it, or tell parents that it is ok to help their children with it? Of course not. Such parents should be in jail.
I’m afraid I think trans-sexualism is rather too close to body integrity dysmorphia for my comfort. Do what you will as an adult but leave the kids out of it. And don’t expect society to embrace you ideas, tolerate and allow for sure, but tolerance does not imply acceptance. So people with this viewpoint, issue, disorder, whatever word you choose, should not have access to private women’s spaces or sex differentiated activities like sports.
I agree with Fraser that this is ‘really tricky’.
But the issue is somewhat simplified if one keeps in mind that there are 3 main sets of transgender individuals. (NB: I am ignoring, in this comment, inter-sex individuals, eg people whose anatomy does not correspond to their chromosomal gender.)
There is ‘early onset’ gender dysphoria. Typically: it begins before 4yo i believe; subjects exhibit traits typical of the opposite gender (ie short+weak if boys, tall+strong if girls), and are homosexual wrt assigned-gender, heterosexual wrt self-identified-gender. They have trouble socializing as kids. Most of these are boys iirc, and most of them grow out of the dysphoria, embracing homosexuality.
In this case, i do not think that one can talk about a mental illness; it’s more like a “mild inter-sex” condition. The problem is not in the mind, but in the body; but as i said, in most cases the mind can adapt.
Then there is ‘late-onset’ dysphoria. There is a theory that this is a sexual fetish. I think this theory difficult to falsify (or to verify). In any case, almost all are men, typically more professionally successful than average, and heterosexual wrt gender at birth. Their dysphoria is not typically manifested until maturity.
This can be considered a mental illness in my opinion; but their body, their choice (as long as i don’t have to pay for their surgery).
And finally, there is ‘sudden-onset’ dysphoria, which was (almost?) unknown before trans-activism became a thing. Most, perhaps almost all of these are girls who are very well adjusted as girls before puberty. We do not yet know how many of them will regret transitioning; but as things stand, i think it unwise to invest in medical-malpractice insurance for specialists in transgender medicine.
Natalie,
My choice of needs as a potential synonym for requires was a poor one. What I meant is their condition would benefit more from counseling than from indulgence and surgery. As in all things this is perhaps not true in all cases but in the vast majority of them. I like to draw the parallel between anorexia and dysphoria. If you are a 5′ 6″ who weighs 85 pounds or seven stone if you will and persist in the belief you are fat, heaven and earth will be moved to convince otherwise and to eat. But if you are convinced you are actually in the body of the wrong sex, too often we are indulging this and lopping off or adding body parts even down to teen agers and perhaps even pre-teens.
Under no circumstances would I require someone to be sent for counseling or adjudged mentally ill simply because of their beliefs provided they aren’t setting out to harm others. But neither should they be granted access to the taxpayer’s dime for “gender reassignment” surgery.
I do believe there are currently many cases of dysphoria that are purely cynical and are propounded by the individual to gain an advantage–either to be assigned to a female prison or to compete against biological females. I’m hoping that our election over here may put a screeching half to much of this as people’s eyes seem to have been opened to a myriad of the insanities that have been on loose–defund the police, porous borders, etc.
That the Carry On series, of which I have seen none, offered up Dr. Crow as a spoof is an indication of them being over their skis well in advance of the times we live in. Over here we have the Babylon Bee which offers up spoof stories that while they might seem outrageous are barely able to keep ahead what is happening in the real world. Talk about prescient!
I
The result is an annulment, not a cancelation. As it understand it, the offending man will run again, and if Trump is any indication will do better next time. The left really need to think about the results of their actions in promoting the right.
If they don’t want him in, then they should get their financial house in order and his support will wither.
As a local, the original manipulation was excluding a candidate before the elections. All her votes went to the nutjob who ended up in first place. Without the original exclusion he would not have made the second round.
What PSD party wanted was to get their guy in the second round with an unpalatable candidate, like they did in the 2000 election, they screwed up when their guy did not make it in. The court is a PSD tool.
The turnout for the Parliamentary and presidential elections was virtually identical (9,259,957 versus 9,242,186) although the number of registered voters was significantly different with only 18,008,480 in the Presidential as opposed to 19,6503,273 in the Parliamentary.
An admittedly superficial analysis of the vote shares shows all three principal parties haemorrhaging support when comparing their percentages in the Parliamentary (PDS 22%, AUR 18%, NLP 13&) and Presidential (PDS 19%, AUR 14%, NJP 9%). In comparison the second-placed candidate in the annulled Presidential election representing the centre-right SRU obtained 19% of that vote up from her party’s 12% in the parliamentary. The independent winner of the subsequently annulled Presidential election gained 22% of the votes, in part from the drop-off in the three parties detailed above. However the significant increase from the SRU candidate is also presumably noteworthy even if I haven’t a clue what it implies.
We might know more when, or if, the Constitutional Court allows a re-run giving the electorate one more chance to get it right.
” However the significant increase from the SRU candidate is also presumably noteworthy even if I haven’t a clue what it implies.”
Not that noteworthy. The candidate for the national liberal party under-performed in the presidential elections. So part of the people who voted Lasconi in the presidential elections voted NLP in parliament.
SRU lost parliamentary votes to SENS and REPER two parties who split from SRU because SRU was not left-wing / progressive enough. Part of the people who voted the SRU candidate for president did so based on the polls showing the best chance to get in the second round for non PDS or AUR, no other reason.
On an entirely different note has anyone been able to access Tim Worstall’s site since Monday?
John,
I was thinking of asking the same but afraid of being embarrassed to find it was just me.
@Roué
Tim says on X that it’s back but I still can’t access it.
The court is Romania is indeed a tool of the Social Democratic Party – but it is also a tool of the international community, which is who the PSD takes its orders from. In the United Kingdom we are familiar with this form of governance – with former Prime Minister Johnson claiming that “Build Back Better”, and the policies behind this slogan, was thought up by himself – but everyone really knowing it was what the international community told him to say and do.
Meanwhile in South Korea the former Defence Minister has tried to kill himself – as his, and the elected President, effort to prevent the take over of the country by forces (who control the elected Parliament and much else) under the influence of the People’s Republic of China and its “Social Justice” has clearly failed.
The former Defence Minster and President tried to impose martial law – but it ended in farcical failure, they may soon wish they had succeeded in killing themselves.
Meanwhile the power of the People’s Republic of China continues to grow – its domestic policies are actually BAD, for example the latest monetary “stimulus” (yet more Credit Money), but the policies of the Western countries are also examples of self-harm.
The PRC is now at twice the level of manufacturing output of the United States – with Western Europe (Britain, Germany and so on) engaged in self-harm via “Green” taxes and regulations, more labour market regulations (“worker’s rights” – to increase unemployment) and so on.
Good news.
Worstall is back.
How far to the left do you have to be to be a ” far-right admirer of Vladimir Putin”?
For whom it may concern this is the far right candidates presidential program translated to English. His ideology is called Sovereign-Distributism. In interviews he mostly talks nonsense so it is hard to know what he really thinks or wants.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/1Q6D0xrJ0_zB_T8JjwheJ_-K4SCvF2e1x/edit?filetype=msword
Radu – thank you. The candidate not only talks nonsense – he writes nonsense, this stuff is straight from the (demented) “sustainable development” agenda – although with a worker co-op spin. “Distributionism” did not make sense when Chesterton and co pushed it – a century ago.
Billll – I do not believe Mr Putin has any real beliefs, left or right, I think he is best understood as a gangster – his supporters, around the world, project their own beliefs upon him (because he is a blank slate – so they can do that) – as I have said before, they are so desperate that they grasp at Mr Putin like a drowning man grasps at a poisonous snake.
I understand the desperation – as the state of Western nations has become so bad. But Mr Putin is NOT a solution.
Paul the reason I say I do not know what he thinks is I do not think he believes that stuff. He is a former member of the commie secret police which had various crony government positions after 1990 then created some shady NGOs to steal public money and recently rebranded himself as a christian patriot. His wife is a former banker recently turned new age healer with bio-resonance and Gemmotherapy and regenerative detox…
while some priests support him cause he claims faith, a lot of it is new age shit not traditional eastern orthodoxy. But I guess lots of priests have Iron Guard sympathy and so does he so…
Radu’s suggestion that the PSD wanted to get the nut job into the second round so their guy would have a walkover might suggest to Sherlock Holmes that any fake social media accounts were more likely to be organised by them than by the Russkies.
Hilary Clinton is behind this mess. Just watch.
😉
(I wonder – if, after everyone involved does their due diligence and they figure out exactly what happened – can an election annulment be annulled?)
Lee Moore -not really because Georgescu was not on the radar before so no one thought he was gonna make it. The guy PSD wanted in the second round was Simion leader of AUR. The general belief was Ciolacu of PSD is guaranteed in and second place was between Lasconi and Simion, the idea was to push Simion in . Georgescu came out of nowhere. And this was because the social media campaign was very well planned, ramped up massively less than a month before the elections.
Sosoaca was suspended and would have gotten around 6-7%. PSD thought those votes would go to Simion. They went to Georgescu. But without the suspension of Sosoaca, even with the massive social media campaign,Georgescu would have probably been third. And the runoff would have been Ciolacu Lasconi. And it is likely Ciolacu would have lost.