Romanian far-right leader investigated for forging signatures for EU election

3 months ago 12

Prosecutors are investigating George Simion, leader of Romania’s far-right AUR party, for allegedly orchestrating the falsification of thousands of signatures needed for Silvestru Șoșoacă’s candidacy as an independent in the EU elections, something AUR denies.

Prosecutors announced on Wednesday that in April, Simion incited several party members and parliamentary staff, directly and through intermediaries, to falsify numerous lists of supporters required for Șoșoacă’s candidacy for the European Parliament. Șoșoacă is the ex-husband of Diana Șoșoacă – a far-right politician who became a senator on the AUR list in 2020.

“We are witnessing the desperate system writhing as its power slips away. AUR has grown too much and is unstoppable… Everything that happened today is an abuse,” Târziu, a prominent AUR leader, told supporters at the party’s headquarters.

On 9 April, Simion called for the “urgent mobilisation” of dozens of people at the party’s headquarters to fill in the necessary lists to submit independent candidacies.

Prosecutors allege that Simion “sent voice messages in communication groups and, when some individuals refused to comply, he contacted them directly, urging them to go to the party’s headquarters for this purpose.”

According to prosecutors, AUR representatives “photocopied” “previously falsified” lists to meet the required 100,000 signatures for an independent candidate even though only around 50 people gathered at the party’s headquarters this time.

“It has begun!!! Dozens of my close friends and members of the campaign team are being called as witnesses and forced to give statements about me!” Simion reacted on social media on Wednesday.

In an interview published this week, when human rights activist Valeriu Nicolae asked Simion if a party could “honestly” collect 200,000 signatures to stand for election, Simion denied it: “No, it’s definitely a fraud… neither USR nor AUR, which genuinely collected signatures on the street, managed to gather that many.”

(Catalina Mihai | Euractiv.ro)