Prosecutors have ignored the instances of anti-Semitism and legionary propaganda recorded in Romania in the last two years, according to a response of the General Prosecutor’s Office (PG) to G4Media and Info Sud-Est, which shows that there was no investigation by the prosecutor’s offices in 2023 and 2024, although the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and legionary propaganda has seen a vertiginous increase, especially on social networks and among political leaders of extremist movements. Legionary propaganda and anti-Semitism are banned in Romania and punishable by law.
Reporters asked the PG headed by Prosecutor General Alex Florența in March 2023 in how many cases the institution he heads has investigated violations of GEO 31/2002, on the prohibition of racism, legionnaireism and the promotion of war criminals. The public prosecutor’s office said that no files have been registered as a result of any ex officio referral:
- „At the level of the Criminal Prosecution Section of the PÎCCJ, no cases have been registered as a result of ex officio referral of cases concerning the violation of GEO 31/2002 on the prohibition of organizations and symbols of a fascist, racist or xenophobic nature and the promotion of the cult of persons guilty of crimes against peace and humanity,” the response to G4Media and ISE shows.
We also asked how many cases concerning anti-Semitic and legionary propaganda and Holocaust denial the Prosecutor General’s Office dealt with in 2023 and 2024, how many of them were closed and how many were sent to trial.
Again, the Prosecutor General’s Office has reported that in the last two years, since the institution has been headed by Prosecutor General Alex Florence, no cases involving Legionnaire propaganda have been sent to trial:
- „In the years 2023 and 2024, at the level of the Criminal Prosecution Section of the PÎCCJ, there were no decisions not to refer/submit to trial in cases dealing with anti-Semitic, legionary propaganda and Holocaust denial,” the response to G4Media and ISE reads.
Last but not least, we asked the PG how many files it has on anti-Semitic and legionary propaganda and Holocaust denial: Only three files, all complaints:
- „Following checks carried out at the Criminal Prosecution Section of the PÎCCJ, it emerged that at the level of this section there are three files in the works on the subject to which you refer.”
A G4Media and ISE analysis from 2022 exclusively showed how prosecutors closed 96% of the cases resolved in 2022 concerning anti-Semitic, legionary and war criminal promotion, and what’s more, one of the judges on whose bench such cases ended up justified one of the prosecutors’ orders to close the cases. Read the full analysis here.
An RFI analysis from 2023 also shows that of the 82 cases that prosecutors had to solve, 25% were closed and the rest remained unsolved.
- Ordinance 31/2002 has been in force for two decades and, according to Article 5, punishes with imprisonment from 3 months to 3 years the promotion in public of the cult of personality for those who have committed genocide or war crimes, as well as the act of promoting in public fascist, legionary, racist or xenophobic ideas, concepts or doctrines. In 2022, only one case out of 26 was prosecuted.
- Alexandru Florian, president of the National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania „Elie Wiesel”, was sounding the alarm at the time, in 2022, and said in a G4Media and ISE statement in 2022 that „anti-Semitism and legionionnaireism are on the rise” and „through the filings of the prosecutors’ offices they realize that they have free rein for propaganda and action”.”We are dealing with a carelessness, a disinterest in building a society that we have been talking about for 30 years,” Alexandru Florian added.
The lack of files opened by prosecutors on legionary propaganda and anti-Semitism is noted in the context in which the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and legionary propaganda have skyrocketed in the public space, especially on social networks and are even being rolled out by the political leaders of extremist currents/parties in Romania.
Below are just three of the most recent examples of violations of GEO 31/2002 recorded in just nine months, with major impact on social media, but for which prosecutors have not taken action:
- February 2024: Ex-AUR senator and current head of S.O.S. Romania Diana Șoșoaca invoked the legionary poet Radu Gyr in a communiqué.
Another notorious case is even that of Călin Georgescu, the winner en fanfare of the first presidential round:
- In 2022, Georgescu defended war criminals by calling legionary leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and the perpetrator of the Holocaust in Romania, Ion Antonescu, „heroes”. He also said of the assassination of Nicolae Iorga by the legionaries that „history is mystified”. Prosecutors have opened a criminal case against him for eulogizing those guilty of genocide and war crimes, but it is not clear what stage the investigation has reached.
Beyond these examples, in a letter sent to the Ministry of Justice on April 26, 2024, and in the possession of G4Media and Info Sud-Est, Daniel Mariaschin (CEO of B’nai B’rith International) and Rabbi Andrew Baker (Director of International Jewish Affairs at the American Jewish Committee) accuse the Attorney General’s Office of failing to follow up on several complaints submitted by the Elie Wiesel Institute. Below, excerpts from the letter:
- „In April 2022, Vasile Zărnescu, a militant Holocaust denier, was sentenced to two years in prison (suspended). This sentence was then replaced with a written warning. Despite the warning, he resumed his public campaign of Holocaust denial. There was no response from the Attorney General.
- In June 2022, the Prosecutor General was asked to investigate the author, Cristian Troncota, for his article claiming that the Romanian authorities protected Jews during the Holocaust, thus denying the Holocaust in Romania. There has been no response from the Prosecutor General.
- Also, in June 2022, the Prosecutor General was asked to investigate the website incorectpolitic.com, which systematically denies the Holocaust and spreads anti-Semitic propaganda. This request was renewed in November 2023. There was no response from the Attorney General.
- In February 2023, the Attorney General was informed about the online platform https://radical-entorage.ro selling fascist and Iron Guard memorabilia. To date, no news of any investigation has been received.
- In March 2023, the Prosecutor General was informed about Marian Motocu who systematically posts racist, anti-Semitic and hateful messages online including Holocaust denial. To date, there has been no response.
- In August 2023, an additional request was sent to the Prosecutor General regarding repeated YouTube posts by Alexandru Amititeloaie and Gica Manole denying the Holocaust in Romania and the Iasi pogrom and promoting the cult of Ion Antonescu. There has been no response from the Prosecutor General’s Office in this case either”.
Asked what stage the above complaints are at and what action prosecutors have ordered in each of the cases, the Prosecutor General’s Office told G4Media and Info Sud-Est that three complaints have been registered without providing the details requested by reporters:
- „Following the checks carried out at the Criminal Prosecution Section of the PÎCCJ, three cases were identified, two of them registered in 2022 and forwarded for competent resolution to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Bucharest Sector 2 District Court and one registered in 2023,” said the PG representatives.
The letter of the two signatories was sent to the Ministry of Justice with their clarification that Romania was sentenced at the ECHR in April 2024 for reversing historic convictions for Holocaust-related crimes, following the retrial and acquittal in the 1990s of two officers convicted in the 1950s for war crimes and crimes against humanity (the case of Zăicescu and Fălticineanu v. Romania (application no. 42917/16).
Asked what stage the above complaints are at and what action prosecutors have ordered in each of the cases, the Prosecutor General’s Office told G4Media and Info Sud-Est that three complaints have been registered without providing the details requested by the reporters:
- „Following the checks carried out at the Criminal Prosecution Section of the PÎCCJ, three cases were identified, two of them registered in 2022 and forwarded for competent resolution to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Bucharest Sector 2 District Court and one registered in 2023,” said the PG representatives.
G4Media and Info Sud-Est wrote extensively about how the authorities break the law, downplaying the role of war criminals in Romania in the 1940s and pointed out 16 situations where the law is blatantly broken.
As a result of G4Media and ISE, the names of Ion Antonescu Street in Constanța, Gheorghe Alexianu Street in Costinești and the name of the „Mircea Vulcănescu” High School in Bucharest’s 4th sector have been changed.
However, there are still many streets, busts, other monuments or public spaces that retain the names of war criminals. A few examples, in large urban centers: in Sector 1 of the capital there is a street named after Vulcănescu, in Sector 2 a memorial bust, and in Cluj Napoca, in 2017, Mayor Emil Boc himself withdrew from the agenda a project to change the name of Radu Gyr street, citing „civil society” that had asked him to do so.
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