It's not ideal, but we're pretty fucking far from ideal.
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i won't give a cry for fascists getting banned.
CRTITICAL SPORT
what happens when Donald duck streaks across the screen naked
Romania pointing the way on how to handle fascism. The only thing democracy can’t tolerate is autocracy, and should therefore act on it. And they have some experience in this regard.
Take my upvote Romania!
If you think this is an effective way to fight fascism id suggest you read some books into the history of fascism
Obviously the most effective way to fight fascism is to elect fascist government and wait until fascists show their incompetence as a governing party, while established institutions and system of checks and balances is ensuring the integrity of next elections, so the fascists will be gone once and for all after a single term.
The Romanian electoral commission did that. I'm sure they had their reasons - the article cites "statements contradictory to democratic values" (last November) and Russian interference. I guess they have something to back that up with. The Guardian does not say, but until someone convinces me otherwise (edit: that will be really hard after me reading this) I will give the electoral commission the benefit here.
This is government at work. If they really wanted to suppress democratic voices they'd not go about it in a way that just gives free publicity to her and better chances to the remaining far-right candidate.
We like democracy but only when you have the same views as the current ruling power
Yeah, let people elect a dictator! What could possibly go wrong?
I hope I'm getting where you are pointing at.
No, I don't like how this kind of events play out but for all that is worth, it can not be allowed for groups that espouse extreme ideologies to even gather the smallest of support.
Democracy as been shown, countless times, it is a very fragile system, vulnerable to players willing to manipulate and distort it in order to achieve personal gains, at the detriment of a large majority.
These far right groups prey upon the insecurities of the masses, create and steer the exact narrative to create distrust and obfuscate real issues and preveny people, either by force or by erasure, to raise doubt or demand proof of their claims.
Let's be tolerant, but let's not be tolerant with those who are intolerant.
You can use whatever words you want to describe it, but at the end of the day when we have the majority of the population voting for something you don't want, you're the minority. Trying to fight against the rights of the majority of the population is a dangerous battle only previously tried by authoritarian dictatorships and similar regimes.
No one seriously tried to stop these people from becoming candidates, but now they have support of the public the ruling powers oppose them.
Also worth mentioning, in Romania, political left and rights seem to be flipped. Far right wing candidates want more rights for gays, etc. So can get confusing depending on which media sources are used.
Trying to fight against the rights of the majority of the population is a dangerous battle only previously tried by authoritarian dictatorships and similar regimes.
That's definitely not limited to authoritarian dictatorships. Seeing as you're posting from an aussie instance, Whitlam's dismissal comes to mind, along with lockdown laws (whether the majority approved or not).
Also worth mentioning, in Romania, political left and rights seem to be flipped.
The left-right framework just isn't useful. As you've pointed out, it's relative and changes massively between each country.
This video helps explain in more depth and proposes a more useful, effective political model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nPVkpWMH9k
Let the majority do whatever it wants to minorities, says liberal democracy understander.
Sounds great until you remember that the current governments of Romania, Germany, France, Britain, etc. are all arming and funding Nazis in Ukraine and enabling ethnic cleansing by a genocidal apartheid occupation regime in Palestine.
it can not be allowed for groups that espouse extreme ideologies to even gather the smallest of support
but it can be allowed to give billions of Euros and tons upon tons of weaponry to swastika-tatooed Hitler worshippers bent on ethnic cleansing. It can be allowed to prop up a corrupt, kleptocratic, dictatorial regime that has cancelled elections, placed all media under state control, declared WW2 Nazi collaborators to be their national heroes, imprisons, tortures and brutally murders journalists, political opposition, people who make online posts against the government or the war, and people who just don't want themselves or their relatives be forcibly drafted into a war against their own brothers. That can be allowed, right?
Personally i just find it extremely hypocritical to constantly talk about how much Europe loves democracy and at the same time steal an election from the candidate who was about to win it and then go on to ban that candidate, who is clearly polling far ahead of all others, from standing in the repeat elections.
The reality is that these right wingers are not being banned from elections for their extremist views (which they undoubtedly hold, i'm not saying they don't), they are banned because they are anti-EU and want peace with Russia instead of war. That is the "extremism" that is intolerable to the Brussels bureaucrats and their comprador lackeys in the Romanian state. A leftist candidate with the same popularity and the same views toward the tyrannical EU and the self-destructive European drive to war against Russia would be treated exactly the same, if not worse.
Democracy as been shown, countless times, it is a very fragile system, vulnerable to players willing to manipulate and distort it in order to achieve personal gains, at the detriment of a large majority.
This has always been happening for as long as "liberal democracy" has existed. The worst offenders of manipulation and distortion of democracy are the mainstream media, who constantly manipulate public opinion in favor of the so-called "moderate" and "centrist" parties that have been getting elected for decades in Europe. This is also to the detriment of a large majority.
Or do you seriously believe that the policies of either the Tories or the Labor party in the UK have benefited the large majority in Britain? How about Macron in France, has he not been a detriment to the large majority of his citizens? So much so that the French voters overwhelmingly rejected his party (yet he somehow is still in charge...)? How about the SPD, CDU and Greens in Germany? How is it not to my detriment as a German citizen for them to cut social spending in favor of massive rearmament? How is it not a detriment to the large majority of Europeans for these parties to push us into a war with Russia? Why is that still allowed?
Why is it that it is not allowed to democratically vote for candidates who oppose the EU (which is a fundamentally neoliberal and highly undemocratic institution that makes it impossible for countries to have left wing economic policies and is now led by unhinged warmongering lunatics who want to pump hundreds of billons of Euros to their friends in the arms industry) and who want peace instead of war?
Giorgia Meloni in Italy is just as much a fascist sympathizer as these right wingers in Romania, but the reason why she was not treated this way is because she was willing to bend the knee to Brussels.
Are you a russian bot? You just swapped aggressor (russia) with the defender (ukraine). There are some more very wrong points (=lies ?) in your text:
- russia is doing ethnic cleansing in ukraine since 2014. Not the european countries you mentioned.
- Ukraine is invaded right now and so is under martial law. Hence votes are not possible right now. Again blame russia for this not Ukraine.
- it was decided in Romania to ban the candidate not on EU level. EU also did not ban Le Pen, Brexit, etc
- EU is not tyrannical, russia is tyrannical. Russia starts war not EU
- It is self destructive to let Russia do what it wants. To oppose russia is a self protecting measure by EU, hence it is not aggressive but rather defensive.
- regarding the media: it is mainly the polit influencers (e.g. joe rogan or other on tiktok, x, instagram, youtube) and alternativ media (e.g. RT russia today) who lie. And less the mainstream media (but also mainstream media has its problems, nothing is perfect, but your point on this topic is wrong again)
- EU is now preparing for war because it has to react on russias invasion and russias hybrid warfare (dividing the society with fake news, attack on infrastructure, killings of people on eu ground) and it also has to react on trumps threat to annex greenland and it also needs to react on possible future China aggressions, which china already declares since years. EU react even slowly and so is not pushing for war as you mentioned
- there are more contra EU parties in european countries than just the romanian one. Brexit already happened. And each country has the right to do so. EU just accepts that as it has to. Ban of romanian party was done by romanias institution not on EU level
democracy dies in epicnesss