The co-president of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), George Simion, “was nearly lynched in Temesvár (Timişoara) at the commemorative event organized on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the 1989 Revolution,” the maszol.ro news portal reported.
Simion and some other AUR leaders have been visiting various cities to thank their constituents for their support in the parliamentary election. The far-right nationalist party, founded only a year ago, entered parliament with almost 9 percent of the vote. On Wednesday, the AUR delegation arrived in Temesvár, where they intended to participate in the ceremony held to pay tribute to the victims of the Revolution of 1989.
Simion, who is commonly known as the leader of a group of nationalist soccer ultras, tried to make a speech in the inner city’s Victoria Square, but he was howled down by the attendants of the commemoration. “Bugger off, you wretched man,” is how the people gathered in the square reacted to the AUR leaders’ words, maszol.ro wrote.
Some shouted at him to wear a mask, and soon after, he was encircled by a grim-looking crowd. The police had to form a cordon around the new politician; eventually, Simion, protected by the police, managed to light a few candles in memory of the Revolution’s victims.
Prior to the AUR delegation’s arrival, the organizer of the commemoration, the Society of Timişoara, issued a communiqué drawing attention to the fact that the ultra-nationalists planned to attend the event. Furthermore, the civil society stressed that there are two parliamentary representatives in the party led by Simion who are former officers of the Communist state apparatus and who were involved in the repression of the Revolution. Hence, the Society of Timişoara called upon George Simion to disavow such characters and to demand that they renounce their parliamentary mandates at once.
“Temesvár rejects and has always rejected nationalism. On December 16, 1989, Ceauşescu’s nationalism wavered under the first blow that came from Temesvár. We won because the people of Temesvár have never answered to the rallying cries of chauvinistic nationalism, because in this city, all the nationalities united and acted together. We won our freedom by rejecting all that the party of George Simion now represents,” wrote the organizers.
Title image: Police had to protect Simion from the people angered by the ultra-nationalists’ presence at the commemoration
Source: tion.ro
