Weaponising the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR): Novelties and Continuums in Romania's Far-Right Political Extremism
Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Routledge Handbook of Non-Violent Extremism: Groups, Perspectives and New Debates
Publication Date
3-9-2023
Abstract
The unanticipated win of right-wing political party the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) in Romania’s 2020 parliamentary elections has created debates surrounding the increase in, and potential dangers of, non-violent extremist groups. As the first ultranationalist, anti-EU party to enter the Romanian parliament in over a decade, the party has been a growing topic of conversation in Romania’s media and a source of concern among state and non-state actors. The party’s electorate has grown organically on Facebook, where AUR’s leaders have waged a war of ideas against the status quo, calling for voter martyrdom in the name of racial, religious, and national purity, conspiracy theories, anti-immigration, anti-leftism, anti-globalism, and anti-homosexuality. This chapter employs discourse analysis to examine narratives of AUR leaders and compares them to past iterations of violent and non-violent extremism to assess AUR’s potential for violence. This investigation finds that the party is not unusual in the Romanian political landscape, as treated by the press, but rather a product of ideological continuities. The findings conclude that although non-violent, AUR’s ideology can trigger violence in followers. Future scholarly investigations could benefit from the aspects of ideological continuity analysed here, as a tool for a more holistic mapping of extremist group narratives.
DOI Link
ISBN
9781000823813,9780367470081
Publisher
Routledge
First Page
258
Last Page
272
Disciplines
Political Science
Keywords
Romanian politics, Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), extremism, nationalism, discourse analysis
Scopus ID
Recommended Citation
Cotofană, Alexandra, "Weaponising the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR): Novelties and Continuums in Romania's Far-Right Political Extremism" (2023). All Works. 5748.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/5748
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
no