Nomad. Walked away from Omelas.
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Disturbing, well documented investigation by 🇷🇴 journalists Luiza Vasiliu and Victor Ilie (see link⬇️). The authors focus on one of the most popular neo-fascist accounts on X. They show the role of pro-Russian bots in increasing the account's visibility. drepturisistrambe.substack.com/p/botii-pro-...
Romanian president Nicușor Dan stands by his decision veto the bill reinforcing bans on fascist organizations and public display of fascist or antisemitic symbols. His arguments are red herrings pure and simple. www.dcnews.ro/nicusor-dan-...
Later edit: source in OP is Eurydice not Eurostat.
And before I end this, reminder: Romania already has some of the lowest PISA scores in Europe. Which sort of makes sense when you realize what kind of morons run the country (and don't get me stared on the opposition). Have a wonderful day y'all. 8/8 worldpopulationreview.com/country-rank...
This isn't with medium and long term consequences, particularly since Romania already has difficulties recruiting young teachers and features one of the oldest corps in the EU. Great success! Clone Bolojan (and get the clones to teach)! 7/
In any case, with more students per class following the current "reform" and, forced to move between various schools, in order to comply with statutory requirements in terms of teaching hours, I can only imagine the impact on their satisfaction. 6/
Satisfaction as a function of relative salary. Romanian teachers aren't the worst payed in Europe (relative to the country's average salary) but are overall among the most dissatisfied. Note to self: Portugal is a strange outlier. Should research why. 5/
Moving on to workload. The recent reform increases the fixed teaching hour workload from 18 to 20 hours/week. It doesn't make Romania an outlier (but it wasn't one before either). 4/
Moreover, when it comes to precarious contracts for teachers, Romania is second only to Spain. 3/
And let's begin with this⬇️. The legal nature of the job. Romania is part of a small number of European states where the teachers' job is safe-guarded by a special status (such as civil servant or similar). 2/
Let's have a look at some data and statistics while the Romanian government sadistically butchers the country's education system. My source is this Eurostat report⬇️ (link included). www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...
Not on the radar of mainstream politicians or media outlets but definitely on the radar of academics documenting the far-right watch. His discourse was documented by Marincea as early as 2022.
Point of detail: he lost a confidence vote which he had himself triggered (art. 49.1) not a motion of no-confidence (art. 49.2).
Today at Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies in Växjö and on zoom! 👇 lnu.se/.../events/2...
... first by the far-right parties AUR, SOS and POT and then by President Dan. The court unanimously rejected both challenges. President Dan decided to use his prerogatives to have the law reexamined by parliament. 3/3
... behind this sentence was rarely enforced (to my knowledge this is only the third conviction). The initial ordinance was passed in 2002, then amended in 2015. A recent attempt to amend the law a second time was was challenged before the Constitutional court... 2/
Alexandru Bâlcu, a member of the Romanian neo-fascist organization Noua Dreaptă (The New Right) was convicted to a 1 year suspended prison sentence for placing stickers featuring fascist symbols on a synagogue. The legislation... 1/ www.g4media.ro/alexandru-ba...
A whopping 39% for the AfD in this poll of Saxony-Anhalt, in eastern Germany. An all-time record in polling for the state, and double what the party got in the last state election in 2021. www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/lan...
... well known. 3/3
... for some reasons he feels to the need to give an account of the early East-Slavic polities from the Rurikids to Peter the great. The most efficient way to counter Russian propaganda is to remind people that this is a new war, waged in violation of several treaties and where the aggressor is...2/
It is certain that ww2, history in general, is used for propaganda purposes in Russian narratives. Imo, it is counterproductive to dive into those narrative and produce counter-narratives which are sometimes also pernicious. I'm thinking for instance at Snyder's recent article in FT where... 1/
fyi mindcraftstories.ro/stiinta/cum-...
@apnews.com’s Anita Snow reviews Madeline Potter’s The Roma: A Travelling History (2025), “a fascinating look at a marginalized and misunderstood group.” Potter blends memoir and research to trace Romani persecution, resilience and culture across Europe. Read more: 📖 apnews.com/article/roma...
Agree with all your 3 comments. Side note: I chuckled when I saw this⬇️ on a Romanian platform yesterday.
In other words, was this the result of a top-down strategy or is it a bottom-up evolution which occurred under pressure from parents and teachers? 2/2
It is a reasonable assumption: acceptance in top schools abroad. I don't necessarily think this means that a scientific "elite" emerges from this process, but it's a point of detail. More importantly: if the system maximizes acceptance in top schools abroad is it by design or by chance? 1/
... and accepted to be interviewed by a person associated with a far-right group while making some very ambiguous statements on a sensitive topic. Very, very disturbing. 5/
See also this thread⬇️ for the broader context. This is a huge red flag. Dan failed to attend the Romanian Navy Day (first post-1989 president to do so) in order to travel to this specific monastery, the notorious location of a yearly neo-fascist rally... 4/ bsky.app/profile/bast...
... NOT separate issues since former guerilla fighter Ogoranu was a militant fascist and very active after 1989 in the Iron Guard revival movement. See my previous thread⬇️. 3/ bsky.app/profile/bast...
... the public display of their symbols. Dan stated that the antifascist law and the memory of anticommunist partisans in the area was an unfortunate connection and that they are separate issue. In fact Dan made the connection himself and it's quite obvious the two are... 2/
August 2025. Romanian president Nicușor Dan was interviewed by the Lucia Baki, a member of the Ogoranu Foundation on his intentions regarding the so called "Vexler law" - a bill reinforcing existing legislation which bans fascist organizations and... 1/ www.gandul.ro/actualitate/...
Ironically, the strategy might actually work MUCH better for humanities. 2/
"Good" in what way? In order to produce scientific elites? Let's say it's true, although I'm not 100% convinced. How would those elites benefit society? The case of the Magurele laser shows that even with massive EU money pumped in a Romanian research project, the results are sub-mediocre. 1/
Yes, finding an adequate metric is problematic.
Yes! Exactly!
One more thing, using mathematics alone, because access to data is easier my argument still stands. Romania has an excellent track record at IMO, but no Fields medal, no Abel award, a flimsy number of top tier highly cited mathematicians even among expat IMO participants or awardees.
... a "cursus honorum" which produces scientific elites MORE EFFICIENTLY (statistically speaking) than Western educational tracks which are more inclusive. 3/3
And again, I'm not arguing that Olympiads aren't a signaling mechanism for recruitment in Western universities. They obviously are. What I'm not convinced of is that this track, Olympiad + top Western university is... 2/
Well, it's hard to argue with no data. I have read a paper, published after I wrote my thread, where the authors showed that IMO awardees actually had higher h-indexes than the average scholar from Ivy league unis. That is such a small sub-set that its statistical significance is super debatable. 1/
I shared some thoughts on Twitter on the this topic a few years ago. x.com/BastonMihait...
In my very humble opinion, early specialization is an overlooked variable. Olympiad students are trained much in the way one trains a race horse and often neglect other subjects. Fictitious grading in subjects judged "unimportant" is a recurring if not pervasive phenomenon.
My work (direct.mit.edu/rest/article...) on competitive high school admissions in Romania and their effects on student outcomes features in this new article in Palladium magazine. 👇 www.palladiummag.com/2025/08/29/w...
This is the Fidesz branch of House Habsburg. I would never trust them. On any matter.
... don't know about the Cold War exile, it's a history of the "in between". That Romanian fascism was never, at any point, a "spiritual movement" disconnected from European fascism and Nazism. Not even half a century after the war. Baston out. 10/10
Like in the case of Cușa, surviving correspondence (and other documents) shows a close relationship with Iron Guard leader Papanace, a rival of Sima. Bacu died in 1997, a soldier in the service of his cause. What are the main takeaways here? That there is still a lot we... 9/
... the country and settles in Evry (Paris area) France. Interestingly enough, he takes a job in a printing shop owned by another Iron Guard member... Ioan Cușa (see 🧵⬇️). 8/ bsky.app/profile/bast...
One thing is certain: in 1946 he was part of a group of Iron Guard members in Austria who denounced Horia Sima's leadership. In the following years Bacu travels to Romania, graduates from high-school, enrolls in an engineering program, is arrested, manages to leave the... 7/
Pană alleges that Bacu was forced to leave Greece because of ethnic hatred directed at Aromanians. He traveled to Italy and then Austria. The timeline here is vague, I haven't been able to verify secondary sources placing Bacu in Romania in 1943. 6/
Bacu was born in 1925 in Grammatiko, Greece, in an Aromanian family (Balkan Eastern Romance speakers). According to his close friend and (fellow Aromanian fascist) Zahu Pană, Bacu was introduced to Iron Guard texts as a high-school student in Greece. 5/
..., a place known for its brutality in the early 50s under the communist regime. Like with many other important characters of the Cold War exile, no reliable biography of Bacu exists, at least not in my opinion. His wikipedia entry is based on some very shady sources. 4/
... from French into Romanian of three poems signed by Dumitru Bacu. Bacu is a fascinating character, always presented in a very positive light in Romanian-language sources since he is the first to have collected testimonies of survivors from the Pitești prison... 3/
... and it's tearful eulogy for a "martyr" of "the right". In fact this section was titled "The memory of the right". Those of you who are somewhat familiar with Romanian neo-fascism have probably guessed who R.C. is. The more interesting detail however is the translation... 2/
Another glimpse into the history of Romanian fascism with a text from the "revival years". "Puncte Cardinale", Feb. 1995, celebrates Robert Brasillach, French far-right poet and Nazi-collaborator, 50 years after his execution. The text on the left is signed R.C. ... 1/
The burial procession of Marshal Constantin Prezan, a hero of WW1 who died on 27 August 1943, with his casket surrounded by an honor guard including generals of WW2 & followed by a group led by King Mihai I with Marshal Ion Antonescu & Mihai Antonescu immediately behind.
Este o formă de prostie absolut imprevizibilă. Nu poți anticipa ce îi poate capul.
Hay una reacción que me dejó sin palabras⬇️.
... asked me to explain some of the details in the article Dan published in Dilema in 2000 I might write a thread on that too in the following days. Baston out. 24/24
I hope this glimpse into what I call "Romania's age of fascist revival", the 90s and early 2000s, clarifies why president Dan's recent statements focused on the NGOs "promoting" Ogoranu and his guerilla group are extremely pernicious. And because some of you DMed me and... 23/
This is in Romanian. context.ro/george-simio... This is in French. legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2025/03/0... This is English (paywall). tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 22/
Before I end the thread, a few references documenting the involvement of the Ogoranu foundations in the recent elections and overall, in the recent surge of the far-right in recent years follow (some are behind a paywall). 21/
... the history of the party. It explicitly states that the party was founded by "cadres of the Legionary Movement", resistance fighters and former political prisoners. Also, by this time the NGO named Ogoranu had been created and was editing the newspaper. 20/
"Buciumul" continued to be printed after Ogoranu's death. Here's a special issue from 2011 (it is possible that by this time the newspaper was no longer printed regularly but I'm not certain). In any case this issue is interesting because it contains a piece which summarizes..19/
... connections between various neo-fascist groups, various far-right voices (see Ion Coja above) etc etc. 2006 - we learn that Ogoranu had become Party President (this was shortly before his death, aged 83). 18/
Sometime between 2001 and 2002 the party's newsletter evolved into a periodical called "Buciumul" (The alphorn). The kind of content didn't change much. The periodical is interesting because, should someone invest (a lot) of time it can be used to track the complex web of... 17/
More importantly it is from this issue that we learn that the aging Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu (delegate for Alba County) was elected party VP. 16/
... guerillas and political prisoners were legionaries. Fast forward to May-June 2001. The party's newsletter had Codreanu on the front page and Horia Sima was not far behind. This issue also features a piece explaining how Christians cannot be antisemites!!! 15/
By 1997 the party newsletter had improved its graphics and overall form and was less squeamish about openly claiming legionary heritage and speaking on behalf of the reborn Legionary Movement. Here↘️ denounced the Movement's enemies and claimed the 70% anticommunist... 14/
Third issue of the newsletter. We have piece celebrating the anniversary of the creation in 1927 of the Legion of Michael the Archangel by Corneliu Codreanu. Interestingly enough the text uses a lot of euphemisms. Despite the references are unambiguous. 13/
... figure of the memorial activity president Dan was defending in his speech. Let's move on. 2nd issue of the newsletter. We find a piece on the activities of the "George Manu Foundation", an NGO which still exists and is still a very active far-right group. 12/
... in the hope of fostering resistance against the new gov't. Anyway, Ogoranu is, on the long run more important than Chioreanu in terms of memory. Worshiped and admired to this day for his record as the most long-lasting anticommunist guerilla fighter he is the central... 11/
... characters who would deserve a well researched biography. Born in 1907, Iron Guard member, found refuge in Nazi Germany after the failed insurrection of 1941. After Romania switched sides in WW2, Chioreanu was parachuted by the Nazis in Romania during operation Regulus... 10/
... major Romanian far-right conventions. Anyway, we also have a list of people making up the party's political council. Note the name of Chioreanu as president and Ogoranu as a regular member (he would become VP and president later). Now Chioreanu is one of those... 9/
Of particular interest is this⬇️ note on a meeting held at Sâmbăta monastery in 1994. This would become an annual event (it's still happening). With the annual event Tâncăbești and the memorial services held in January at St. Elijah–Gorgani in Bucharest it's one of the... 8/
This first newsletter begins and ends with a poem by Iron Guard commander Radu Gyr. Sandwitched between the two are various documents, proclamations which I will not deal with here. 7/
... of this group to re-create as early as 1993 a party called "Everything for the country". Featuring this motto on the newsletter was their way of showing their lineage. The prevalent use of green in their newsletters is not a coincidence either. 6/
"Everything for the country". Now this is important because "Everything for the country" is the name of a party founded in 1933 by fascist leader Codreanu as a legal incarnation of his movement (I'm simplifying). In fact Romanian courts had prevented the attempts to... 5/
Now, let's go back in time to 1995. The "Party for the Motherland/Fatherland" founded by "former political prisoners, war veterans and mountain guerillas" was printing its first newsletter. The party itself had been registered in 1993. The newsletter also informs us that their motto was... 4/
... and as a general rule keep in mind that a hobo with twitter account is not a scholarly source. Anyway, if you haven't read this thread⬇️ you may want to do so before scrolling further. 3/ bsky.app/profile/bast...
... at the published output of the group roughly from 1995 to 2011. As we go along I will provide references and quotes from various academics or links to press articles. Now, I am writing this on the fly as I write all my threads so there will be typos, potentially errors... 2/
In this 🧵 we are going to look at specific neo-fascist group formed in Romania in the 1990s. I picked it not because it is the most influential but because it is directly linked to president Nicușor Dan's recent positions. The way we will be doing this is by looking... 1/
One may mock AUR as some loud and brutish rudimentary version of a fascist party, but make no mistake: that party has a core of cadres who are educated and are true believers. 7/7
... set aflame. The entire interview is a cocktail of pure insanity. And sure enough, this is not new and has been debunked in the past. But in the current political climate seeing it on social media gave me the shivers. There's another important takeaway here. 6/
... first language and where Romanians were afraid to speak there language in 1918 because the Jews were "taking notes". During the 1940 events Goma claims that Orthodox Christian priests had their beards burned by Jews before being locked in their churches and being... 5/
It is important to note that this is not just a version of the Jude0-Bolshevik myth. In fact in the interview Goma insists that this is not something communists did - this was Jews against Christians. He describes Chișinău as a primarily Jewish town where Yiddish was the... 4/
... the Hitler-Stalin pact. For a detailed description of the affair and an in-depth analysis of how this became one of the most enduring antisemitic myths in Romanian conscience see Blasen⬇️. 3/ t.co/XzSeiDjxz4
Goma was dissident writer who fled Ceaușescu's Romania and found refuge in France. Towards the end of his life he published several editions of a text called "The Red Week" describing alleged crimes committed by Jews against Christian Romanians in the aftermath of... 2/
One of the most vile antisemitic conspiracy theories of post-1989 Romania has been resurrected on TikTok and is amplified by AUR senator Sorin Lavric. The screenshot shown a recent FB post by Lavric linking to a video showing a 2004 interview of Paul Goma. 1/
No, sorry...
Life in many of these countries might not necessarily be better (not short term anyway) but it would open up the entire EU to them.
Up high, in the mountains of madness. Former mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Gheorghe Funar (a far-right clown) claims Russian president Putin was born to Romanian parents named Putină. This was just one take in an interview covering 1000 years of "history". Imagine the rest.
... Georgescu in the 2024 elections (to the best of my knowledge), but, otherwise, one of the most extreme. 10/10
As such, these biographical details are small pieces of a puzzle which remains largely unexplored to this day. Before concluding one more note. This periodical is edited by the "George Manu" foundation, a neo-fascist group remarkable in the sens that it did not support... 9/
As the owner of a printing shop, a lot of the stuff printed by Romanian exiles in Paris (including the ones working at Radio Free Europe) involved Cușa. A lot of cultural or literary projects (some problematic, some not) included Cușa. 8/
... the Iron Guard) in his school in Constanța. As I was mentioning in another thread⬇️, Ioan Cușa is a very important individual in the history of Romanian cold-war émigré communities and particularly that in France. 7/ bsky.app/profile/bast...
But the "gem" is this little interview with George Cușa. There's an interesting note about his cousin "Ioan Cușa", "who would later become a leader of our diaspora in France" who, while in junior high-school participated in the creation of a youth chapter of the Legion (aka... 6/
As a side-note, there's a lot of recent research available on the Orthodox involvement in the Romanian far-right and very little on the Greek Catholics, although imo it's particularly relevant, especially on a regional level, in Maramures, for example. 5/
This Spanish connection is easily explained by the presence of a Greek-Catholic priest in the editorial board, MV, known for his participation at the yearly Spanish-Romanian fascist event in Majadahonda. 4/
... it includes an interview of representatives of Spanish Falangist Youth and their affiliate student organization. Also, a romanticized biographical article about a volunteer in the pro-Nazi Azul Division. 3/
The issue features lengthy quotes from Codreanu presented as imprecations to be followed, a romanticized and apologetic account of the deeds of the death squad known as Decemviri and other such hogwash that one expects in this sort of periodical. More interestingly... 2/
Snippets from my week-end reading. Short 🧵 Understanding the Romanian far-right underground, its links to European neo-fascist networks, its historical and political narratives requires reading their publications. Here's a 2021 issue of "Permanențe". 1/
