In this conversation at the Review of Democracy, Ionuț Biliuță discusses the connections between Orthodoxy and nationalism in Romania and to what extent they have influenced this year’s presidential elections; the revival of narratives concerning ‘fascist martyrs’ by Călin Georgescu and other radicals; the impact the 2018 Constitutional referendum on same-sex marriage had on radicalization; the ideas in transnational circulation that have inspired Georgescu’s statements, including Alexander Dugin’s and those of Donald Trump’s Evangelical supporters; and the steps that the Romanian Orthodox Church could take to dissociate itself from far right discourses.
Ionuț Biliuță is a Research Fellow at the Gheorghe Șincai Research Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities in Târgu-Mureș. His main academic interests concern the history of the Orthodox Church in the 20th century, antisemitism and racism in modern Orthodox theology, fascism and Orthodox clergy, as well as the survival of fascist ideas in post-communist Orthodox milieus. His recent article “The Romanian Orthodox Church between the Alliance for the Union of Romanians and the Putinist Temptation: Ultranationalist Propaganda Among Orthodox Clergymen and the Russian War Agaianst Ukraine” explains how ultranationalist propaganda has been disseminated through Orthodox clergymen.
The conversation was conducted by Adrian Matus. Alina Young edited the recording.
The podcast was recorded on December 3, before the Romanian Constitutional Court has annulled the presidential election, after declassified intelligence showed an illegal coordinated online campaign in favor of Georgescu, allegedly organized by Russia.
