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Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
In western Ukraine, ethnic Romanians grapple with war, identity, and displacement
While Romania debated its future in its recent presidential election, Romanians in Ukraine's Chernivtsi Oblast just across the border continued to wrestle with war, mobilization, and the loss of their pre-war lives. Romania's tight election race at the end of May kept many in Europe on the edge of their seats as candidates with starkly different visions for the country's future vied to take office in the EU member state. Pro-European liberal Nicusor Dan, who supported aid to Ukraine in fighting off Russia's invasion, defeated his opponent George Simion, a far-right Eurosceptic candidate who opposed supporting Ukraine and was banned from entering the country over his "systematic anti-Ukrainian activities." In the west, Ukraine's historically diverse population includes sizable communities of ethnic Romanians, Poles, and Hungarians. Their ancestors lived with Ukrainians in the areas that became Ukrainian after the borders took their current shape in the First and Second World Wars. 'My grandma is a Romanian, my grandpa is a Romanian, father is a Romanian. I am (also) a Romanian,' said Oleksandr, 58, a resident of Ukraine and one of only 431 people who cast votes for a Romanian election in Ukraine, according to the turnout numbers provided by the Romanian Special Telecommunications Service. He declined to provide his last name. "We were good neighbors to each other and have to remain good neighbors." Chernivtsi Oblast remains the main hub of ethnic Romanians among the three Ukrainian oblasts bordering Romania. It hosts an estimated more than 100,000 ethnic Romanians, some of whom live in almost entirely Romanian villages, study in Romanian-speaking schools, and organize cultural festivals. Before the war, many Ukrainians with Romanian roots from the area routinely went to Romania for work or studies, strengthening cultural diplomacy between the countries and fueling the local economy. 'We were good neighbors to each other and have to remain good neighbors (with Romania),' said Ihor, a silver-haired local man who came to the Romanian voting station in Chernivtsi on May 18 with his wife. Ihor did not want to give his last name. But now in Chernivtsi, far away from most of the Russian attacks on the front and major cities, the war has unsettled the balance that once let the Romanian community move easily between both countries — and cultures. Military-aged men are not allowed to leave the country and can no longer work abroad. Despite many holding dual Romanian-Ukrainian citizenship, Ukrainian law only recognizes them as Ukrainian citizens. With the oblast's economy weakened by the loss of income from abroad, local job opportunities are limited. Many men fear being drafted from the streets. Funerals of Ukrainian fighters in Chernivtsi Oblast took place almost daily in May. A wave of patriotic fervor, which mobilized Ukrainians in response to Russia's invasion, has bolstered the Ukrainian language's role as the state language. But in Chernivtsi, the ethnic Romanian minority hopes that their opportunities to live, study, and pray in the Romanian language in Ukraine won't be affected by Ukraine's pushback against centuries of Russification. Residents and Romanian activists say the majority of dual citizens in Chernivtsi Oblast obtained Romanian citizenship for economic, not identity-based reasons. Romanian law grants the right to citizenship to any Ukrainian who can prove their descent from people who lived in Chernivtsi Oblast during Romanian rule from the late 1910s to the 1940s. 'Mainly, (people got dual citizenship) to have access to European countries.' 'In our Ukraine, there is no job, and nothing to live on,' said ethnic Romanian Vasyl Bota, 74, whose five children left to work abroad before the full-scale invasion. 'Mainly, (people got dual citizenship) to have access to European countries,' said Vasyl Byku, an ethnic Romanian activist and the head of the Romanian Culture Society named after Mihai Eminescu, a Romanian romantic poet and novelist. 'The situation was different before, there was a visa regime (with the European Union),' Byku told the Kyiv Independent. 'Visas were very expensive. People went to Europe, were caught there, returned, and deported. (With a Romanian passport), they got an opportunity to go and do some work.' People from Chernivtsi and other western oblasts would direct their earnings from abroad to renovating their family houses in Ukraine, said Lavrentii, a driver with dual Ukrainian-Romanian citizenship who often transports people across the Romanian border. 'It also gave work in construction to people living here. The chain has been interrupted. It affects everything,' Lavrentii added. Locals say it's widely known in Chernivtsi that a routine document check done by draft office patrols can result in being drafted right off the streets. In Chernivtsi, Oleksii Rusetskyi was drafted on New Year's Eve at the train station as he was arriving from Kyiv, his sister, Olena Mishakova, told the Kyiv Independent on May 18 at a rally in the city's downtown area for missing and captured soldiers. Mishakova held up a large Ukrainian flag with her brother's picture, along with another hundred silent women, children, and men lined up with flags and pictures of their family members. 'We were born here as Romanians, but this does not mean that we are not citizens of Ukraine. We are citizens of Ukraine in the first place.' Her brother went missing in Donetsk Oblast on Dec. 25, a year into his service. The fear of being drafted has also changed daily life for men in Chernivtsi. Ivan, a taxi driver who declined to give his last name, regularly checked a chat on Viber with over 33,000 members where people shared updates on the draft office patrols around the city. He told the Kyiv Independent that he avoided trips outside Chernivtsi, afraid he could be conscripted at any one of the checkpoints encircling it. 'All the young people took their families and left to Romania, to Europe, because they don't see a future here,' said Yurii Levchyk, a Chernivtsi district council member and the director of the Bukovyna art center for revival and promotion of Romanian culture. 'For one, this is no longer a state here, it's a police system,' Levchyk told the Kyiv Independent as he walked from the voting station to his art center on May 18. 'People are being grabbed on the streets. There are still plenty of (ethnic Romanian) people here, but they are hiding,' he added. Many ethnic Romanians in Chernivtsi Oblast have also volunteered to fight for their homeland, Ukraine, Byku said. 'In every (ethnic Romanian) village, our national flags for fallen soldiers stand in the cemeteries,' Byku said. 'We were born here as Romanians, but this does not mean that we are not citizens of Ukraine. We are citizens of Ukraine first and foremost.' Simion's position on the Russian war in Ukraine fueled old tensions between Romania and Ukraine concerning Romanian minority rights. 'Maybe the war deepened all our problems,' Levchyk said, referring to government corruption, the lack of accountability for the authorities, and cases of potentially unlawful mobilization. 'We didn't feel any major problems (before the full-scale war). Sometimes we thought that we were being wronged, but we would bring it up and discuss, and put things right,' Levchyk said, describing his frustration with the problems in the country that were not specific to Romanians. "The war deepened all the problems." Beyond the frustrations many Ukrainians share about the government, Byku said that ethnic Romanians in Ukraine do not experience ethnic conflict or discrimination. Earlier, Byku opposed a 2017 law that would have switched about a hundred Romanian-speaking schools around the country to studies in the Ukrainian language. But according to Byku, the schools continue to operate in Romanian as the law was 'put on hold." 'We just want to be citizens of Ukraine. But we don't want to lose our identity. This is very important to us,' Byku added. Despite this, Russian propaganda actively uses narratives of alleged abuses of minority groups in Ukraine to raise anti-Ukrainian sentiments in Romania. According to Roman Hryshchuk, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest from the ethnic Romanian village of Hlyboke, the rumors about persecution of the faith and Orthodoxy by Ukrainian authorities are spread in Romania by Romanian-speaking priests from Russian-linked churches, which still dominate Chernivtsi Oblast. As Ukrainian communities and activists vote to switch their own parishes to the Ukrainian church and leave behind the persistent religious domination of Moscow, Hryshchuk said the priests of Russian-linked churches 'lie to their parish' that the Ukrainian church will force them to hold services exclusively in Ukrainian. However, in 2019, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church founded its Romanian vicariate to accommodate Romanian speakers who wish to hold services in the Romanian language. 'This, in fact, caused a wave of anti-Ukrainian outrage in Romania. And Simion built his (presidential candidate's) work around this wave,' Hryshchuk added. Hello, this is Natalia Yermak. I reported this story for you. In a far western Chernivtsi Oblast, removed from the front and the Kyiv Independent's headquarters in Kyiv, Russian propaganda around alleged ethnic and religious persecution in Ukraine could grow unnoticed until it threatens the long-standing relationship between allies. If you wish to help us shed light on it, please consider supporting our field reports from all over Ukraine by becoming a member. Thank you! Read also: Romania's new president faces daunting challenges after surprise victory over far-right upstart We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pro-EU centrist Nicusor Dan sworn in as Romania president
Pro-European centrist Nicusor Dan was on Monday sworn in as Romania's president, having pledged to stand against "isolationism and Russian influence". A week ago, Dan won a tense election rerun, seen as key for the direction of the NATO and European Union country bordering war-torn Ukraine. Although EU critic and nationalist George Simion easily topped the first round of voting, Dan took victory in the second round run-off. The election came five months after Romania's constitutional court scrapped a presidential ballot over allegations of Russian interference and the massive social media promotion of the far-right frontrunner, who was not allowed to stand again. Dan, 55 and Bucharest mayor since 2020, took the oath of office in parliament. "The Romanian state needs a fundamental change, within the rule of law, and I invite you to continue to be involved in order to put positive pressure on state institutions to reform," Dan told the assembly after being sworn in. "I call on political parties to act in the national interest." Lawmakers from Simion's far-right AUR party did not participate in the ceremony, saying it was "legitimising a national treason". Later on Monday, Dan was to meet interim president Ilie Bolojan -- who has been tipped as a possible prime minister. Dan has vowed to usher in a "new chapter" in Romania. He travelled to Warsaw on Sunday to support pro-EU Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who hopes to emerge the winner of Sunday's race for the Polish presidency. "We won the Romanian presidential elections. People rejected isolationism and Russian influence," Dan told thousands of people at a really for Trzaskowski. - 'We will resist' - Tensions remained high in Romania, with authorities on alert after hundreds of TikTok users called for protests on Monday. "We will resist!" Simion, 38, wrote on Facebook on Sunday, although he specified that he would not be protesting on Monday. Romania's constitutional court validated the election results on Thursday, after rejecting an appeal by Simion to annul the vote. Simion has repeatedly alleged that there was foreign interference in the vote, including by France, and electoral fraud, without giving any evidence. He condemned the court's decision as a "coup d'etat". Simion comfortably topped the first-round ballot on May 4, campaigning against what he called the EU's "absurd policies" and vowing to cut aid to Ukraine. But Dan won almost 54 percent of the run-off vote. Romania's president has significant sway in foreign policy -- including representing the country at NATO and EU summits -- and appoints key posts, such as the prime minister. Dan, a mathematics prodigy who has promised to fight corruption for an "honest" Romania, has said he would speak to all four pro-Western parliamentary parties about "not only the appointment of the prime minister but also the outline of the government's programme", including judicial reforms. Romania, a country of 19 million people, is struggling with high inflation. It is the EU's most indebted country. Dan, who is known for his reserved nature, has voiced support for Ukraine and vowed to keep Romania on its "pro-Western" path. bur-jza/gil
Int'l Business Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Pro-EU Centrist Nicusor Dan Sworn In As Romania President
Pro-European centrist Nicusor Dan was on Monday sworn in as Romania's president, having pledged to stand against "isolationism and Russian influence". A week ago, Dan won a tense election rerun, seen as key for the direction of the NATO and European Union country bordering war-torn Ukraine. Although EU critic and nationalist George Simion easily topped the first round of voting, Dan took victory in the second round run-off. The election came five months after Romania's constitutional court scrapped a presidential ballot over allegations of Russian interference and the massive social media promotion of the far-right frontrunner, who was not allowed to stand again. Dan, 55 and Bucharest mayor since 2020, took the oath of office in parliament. "The Romanian state needs a fundamental change, within the rule of law, and I invite you to continue to be involved in order to put positive pressure on state institutions to reform," Dan told the assembly after being sworn in. "I call on political parties to act in the national interest." Lawmakers from Simion's far-right AUR party did not participate in the ceremony, saying it was "legitimising a national treason". Later on Monday, Dan was to meet interim president Ilie Bolojan -- who has been tipped as a possible prime minister. Dan has vowed to usher in a "new chapter" in Romania. He travelled to Warsaw on Sunday to support pro-EU Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who hopes to emerge the winner of Sunday's race for the Polish presidency. "We won the Romanian presidential elections. People rejected isolationism and Russian influence," Dan told thousands of people at a really for Trzaskowski. Tensions remained high in Romania, with authorities on alert after hundreds of TikTok users called for protests on Monday. "We will resist!" Simion, 38, wrote on Facebook on Sunday, although he specified that he would not be protesting on Monday. Romania's constitutional court validated the election results on Thursday, after rejecting an appeal by Simion to annul the vote. Simion has repeatedly alleged that there was foreign interference in the vote, including by France, and electoral fraud, without giving any evidence. He condemned the court's decision as a "coup d'etat". Simion comfortably topped the first-round ballot on May 4, campaigning against what he called the EU's "absurd policies" and vowing to cut aid to Ukraine. But Dan won almost 54 percent of the run-off vote. Romania's president has significant sway in foreign policy -- including representing the country at NATO and EU summits -- and appoints key posts, such as the prime minister. Dan, a mathematics prodigy who has promised to fight corruption for an "honest" Romania, has said he would speak to all four pro-Western parliamentary parties about "not only the appointment of the prime minister but also the outline of the government's programme", including judicial reforms. Romania, a country of 19 million people, is struggling with high inflation. It is the EU's most indebted country. Dan, who is known for his reserved nature, has voiced support for Ukraine and vowed to keep Romania on its "pro-Western" path. Nicusor Dan (R) received his presidential mandate from Marian Enache (L), head of Romania's constitutional court AFP
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kremlin says Romanian election was 'strange, to say the least'
MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin on Monday described Romania's presidential election as "strange", saying the pro-Russian candidate who won an aborted vote last year had been unfairly disqualified. Pro-European centrist Nicusor Dan defeated a hard-right, nationalist rival in Sunday's election - a re-run of the 2024 vote when front-runner Calin Georgescu was disqualified over what Romanian authorities said was an undeclared Russian influence campaign on his behalf. "The elections were strange, to say the least," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "We know the story of the candidate who had the best chance of winning. Without bothering to find any justification, he was simply forcibly removed from the race." Russia has previously denied any role in Georgescu's campaign, and accused Romanian authorities of barring him for political reasons. Dan's victory was a relief for centrist policymakers in Brussels where there is concern that popular anger with mainstream elites over migration and cost of living pressures could bolster support for far-right parties and erode unity on the continent over how to deal with Russia. Separately, the Russian founder of the Telegram messenger app Pavel Durov said that French intelligence services had pressured him to suppress voices supportive of hard-right runner-up George Simion, who had pledged to end military aid to Ukraine. Peskov said of Durov's allegations: "The fact that European countries, France, Great Britain, Germany, interfere in the internal affairs of other countries is not news." France's foreign intelligence service has denied the allegations made by Durov. The tech entrepreneur is currently banned from leaving France, where he is under investigation over the suspected abuse of Telegram for purposes of organised crime.
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First Post
19-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
Pro-European gains shape elections in Romania, Poland, and Portugal amid rising far-right pressure
Pro-European candidates scored key victories in Romania and held leads in Poland, while Portugal's center-right won without a majority. The results highlight both EU support and rising far-right influence across Europe read more In a critical weekend for European politics, pro-European Union candidates and parties made notable gains in Romania, Poland, and Portugal—though far-right contenders and rising political fragmentation underscored the continent's shifting political landscape. Romania: Dan secures presidency in dramatic turnaround In Romania, pro-EU candidate Nicușor Dan won a decisive victory in Sunday's presidential runoff, defeating hard-right nationalist George Simion in a race widely viewed as a geopolitical referendum. With 99% of the vote counted, Dan secured 53.9% to Simion's 46.1%, marking a dramatic turnaround after Simion had led the first round earlier this month. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Dan, the incumbent mayor of Bucharest, overcame what many believed was an insurmountable deficit, gaining nearly 900,000 more votes in the second round. His victory was seen as a rejection of Simion's nationalist rhetoric and skepticism toward the EU. Thousands of supporters gathered outside Dan's headquarters in Bucharest, waving European flags and cheering as the results rolled in. From an outdoor stage, Dan delivered an emotional victory speech thanking supporters and extending an olive branch to Simion's voters, calling for unity in a politically divided country. Poland: Tight race sets stage for runoff In Poland, liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki emerged as the top contenders in the presidential election, setting up a high-stakes runoff on June 1. An Ipsos exit poll showed Trzaskowski with 31.1% of the vote, narrowly ahead of Nawrocki's 29.1%, suggesting a closely contested second round. Trzaskowski, aligned with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, is known for his pro-European stance and progressive social policies, drawing strong support in urban centers. Nawrocki, a political newcomer backed by the conservative Law and Justice party, has campaigned on national sovereignty and traditional values, echoing anti-EU and anti-Ukrainian sentiments. His recent meeting with former U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House was widely interpreted as a symbolic endorsement. Portugal: Center-right wins, but faces fragmented parliament In Portugal, the center-right Democratic Alliance led by incumbent Prime Minister Luís Montenegro won Sunday's general election but fell short of a parliamentary majority. With 99.2% of votes counted, the alliance secured at least 89 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly, short of the 116 needed to govern outright. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This marks Portugal's third general election in three years and comes amid ongoing political instability. Montenegro's government had been ousted in a no-confidence vote earlier this year after serving less than 12 months. In a post-election speech, he expressed willingness to form cross-party agreements, emphasizing national unity over partisan divides. Complicating the political outlook is the continued rise of the populist Chega (Enough) party, which ran on an anti-immigration and anti-corruption platform. Chega may yet claim second place, further highlighting the growing influence of far-right movements in Western Europe. Europe at a crossroads The weekend's results reflect a broader trend across Europe: pro-European forces remain resilient, but face growing pressure from populist and nationalist challengers. As governments form and runoffs approach, the balance between integration and sovereignty continues to define the continent's political future.
