The pro-Russian candidate with legionary rhetoric in the May 4 presidential elections, Călin Georgescu, appears next to defendant Marian Motocu, on trial on charges of legionary propaganda, anti-Semitism and xenophobia on Facebook, according to G4Media sources. It is the first major case referred by prosecutors in recent years under GEO 31/2002, according to judicial sources consulted by G4Media.
„Let us embrace our past, let us embrace our history, let us embrace our ancestors,” Călin Georgescu says in a clip.
According to the cited sources, prosecutors found a video during the search in which Georgescu said:
- „Let’s embrace our past, embrace our history, embrace our ancestors. The time will come when we will have a single national history book, we will have a country of our own, of those of us who follow an ancestral line, of those of us who understand what the sacrifice of our ancestors meant and understand that we are what we are and we will only be what we are. Thank you all!”.
The fan in Călin Georgescu’s video was prosecuted under the Criminal Code and Emergency Ordinance 31/2002, which punishes incitement to hatred, homophobia, anti-Semitism, legionnaireism, etc. with imprisonment, but the Romanian state has failed to enforce the law for the past two decades. See details here.
Note that the legionary movement used assassination as a political weapon in the inter-war period, and the legionaries were the perpetrators of political assassinations that rocked Romania in the 30s.
Among others, the legionaries killed two prime ministers in office, I.G. Duca (December 30, 1933, in Sinaia railway station) and Armand Călinescu (September 21, 1939, in Bucharest), and the historian Nicolae Iorga (November 27, 1940, brutally murdered and mocked near Strejnicu, Prahova).
A legionary commando also kidnapped, tortured and killed the economist Virgil Madgearu, in November 1940, while Romania was a national-legionary state (between September 14, 1940 – February 14, 1941). The Legionnaires also killed more than 60 political prisoners during the „Jilava massacre” and dozens of other innocent people who were put on „black lists”.
- Read here why the Legionary Movement is the most toxic political and ideological product of inter-war Romania, as well as about the Romanian state’s tolerance after 1989 for leaders or regimes that promoted crime as a political weapon.
In 2020, Călin Georgescu said of the Legionary movement that „it was the most powerful essence and expression of health and self-will coming from the Romanian people” and that „it was unique”. The legionary movement used assassination as its main political weapon.
At the same time, Romania has at least two legal frameworks to punish legionary promotion, propagation and apologia, anti-Semitism or hate speech, and G4Media has shown here and here how the authorities have failed to enforce the law over the past two decades.
- Marian Motocu, the leader of a far-right organization, has been indicted on charges of legionary propaganda and anti-Semitic and xenophobic messages on social media, the Craiova District Court Prosecutor’s Office announced. See details here.
Context
Crin Antonescu, the PSD-PNL-UDMR-Minorities candidate in the May 4 presidential elections, recalled the murders of the legionaries on Wednesday evening on Digi24, talking about the lists of journalists and the hate speech by the fans of pro-Russian candidate Georgescu on social media: „This is how Nicolae Iorga, Virgil Madgearu and other innocent Romanian people were killed”, said Crin Antonescu. See details here.
USR president and candidate in the May 4 presidential elections, Elena Lasconi, also reacted to the lists of journalists and incitement to hatred rolled out by fans of pro-Russian candidate Georgescu on social media, calling them a „fascist-sounding filth” and asked prosecutors to investigate. See details here.
The public prosecutor’s office headed by prosecutor Alex Florența as of March 30, 2023 had not sent a single person to trial for legionnaireism or criminal apologia, while extremism was exploding in Romania, including from the rostrum of the parliament. Only 22 years after the entry into force of the emergency ordinance criminalizing legionnaireism, anti-Semitism, fascism, xenophobia, apologia for war criminals and other components of the extreme right, did the authorities start to apply the law banning legionnaireism, anti-Semitism, fascism, xenophobia, apologia for war criminals and other components of the extreme right.
The Romanian state also criminalizes Holocaust denial or minimizing the Holocaust, as well as hate speech or discriminatory speech. During all this time, the complaints and alarm signals raised by the Elie Wiesel Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, diplomats or Jewish organizations were ignored, while extremists commemorated Corneliu Zelea Codreanu annually in Tâncăbești with the legionary salute, and politicians themselves incited hatred, legionionism or recorded serious anti-Semitic slips.
The Prosecutor General’s Office or the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police did not even send out a press release, make any statements or press conferences in which they at least expressed their concern about the phenomenon, warned that they are monitoring the extremist phenomenon in Romania or reminded that there is a law criminalizing such demonstrations.
No ex officio referral and no indictment since Florence took over as Prosecutor General
G4Media and ISE asked the General Prosecutor’s Office how many cases the institution has filed for violations of GEO 31/2002 since March 2023, since the PG has been headed by Alex Florența. No cases have been registered as a result of ex officio referrals for violation of GEO 31/2002, the prosecutor’s office’s press office replied:
- „At the level of the Criminal Prosecution Section of the PÎCCJ, no cases have been registered as a result of ex officio referrals of cases concerning the violation of GEO no. 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 reads.
The Prosecutor General’s Office also said, at the request of G4Media and ISE, that in the last two years, since the institution has been headed by Prosecutor General Alex Florence, no cases have been prosecuted involving Legionnaire propaganda:
- „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, legionist propaganda and Holocaust denial,” the response to G4Media and ISE reads.
A report by the Judicial Inspection of May 2021, which analyzed the situation of files on anti-Semitism, xenophobia, legionnaireism, hate speech, etc., between 2017-2020, records „a low share of files” targeting these crimes:
Out of 466 cases identified across all prosecutor’s offices in Romania between 2017-2020, 320 had been resolved by 2021. Out of these 320 cases, 244 were closed, in 15 cases prosecutors dropped the prosecution and only 9 cases, i.e. less than 3%, were sent to trial by indictment (in another 24 cases prosecutors declined jurisdiction and another 28 cases were joined).
In the conclusions of the report, the Judicial Inspectorate asked:
- Prosecutors’ offices and courts to discuss the issues raised in the report in professional education sessions;
- To include in the six-monthly activity programs of the prosecutor’s offices objectives aimed at dealing with the category of offences covered by this inspection;
- The introduction in the decentralized education curriculum of topics addressing the issue of hate speech, from the perspective of freedom of expression, as well as the use of the Internet as a means of disseminating potentially discriminatory, xenophobic materials and messages and fascist symbols and doctrines. Read the full report of the Judicial Inspection here.
Alarm signals ignored
During all this time, leaders of reputed Jewish organizations, the National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania „Elie Wiesel” or the government’s adviser on extremism issues were publicly sounding alarm bells or referring the matter to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
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