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The Prince and the Bear – a
fairy tale about nationalism
in Romania4 min read
By Ionut Chiruta Posted June 25, 2021
In early May, Romanian media broke the news that a
Liechtenstein prince had, in March, killed Romania’s
largest brown bear. The scandal surrounding the
killing of Arthur, the bear who activists allege may
even be the largest brown bear in Europe, captured
the public’s imagination. Yet a month later, no
investigation has been launched. In a well-crafted
display of damage control, the public discourse was
hijacked; instead of the enemy inside–corruption–the
focus was placed upon the enemy outside–
foreigners.
Despite Romania banning trophy hunting back in 2016,
Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein, the prince and
antagonist of our story, used feeble wildlife legislation to
bribe his way into securing a special license to hunt for a
female bear that was wreaking havoc in Covasna county.
But chance had it that the largest brown bear in Romania
crossed paths with our prince, who, with a single shot,
ended the life of the beast.
And this is how our story ends – or how it should have
ended if this was about chivalry, knights, and fair maidens.
But there’s no happy ending when the antagonists are
allowed to get away with it. Corruption, instead of going
unpunished, is masked by the populist-nationalist
rhetoric of politicians. The guilty escape unpunished, and
the enemy is conveniently framed solely as the foreigner
who fired the fatal shot. The prince’s castle was first to
come under siege, facing bombardment from the media,
who highlighted the story’s ‘foreign’ element. The people
seethed with anger and delivered digital retribution on
the Google page of the prince’s castle via comments and
one-star reviews. As more people added to the growing
outrage over the shooting of the bear, the echoes of one
voice, in particular, reached the four corners of Romania.
The new contender in right-wing politics
Nationalist rhetoric is not uncommon in Romania, but one
party stands above others: The Alliance for the Union of
Romanians (AUR). Translated from Romanian into English
as GOLD, AUR is a party of homophobic rhetoric, anti-
COVID-19 measures and conspiracy theories, ardent
supporters of the Orthodox Church, and promoters of
Romanian sovereignty. Though barely uttered publicly
because of Romania’s high trust in the European Union
system (51.6% in March 2021), AUR’s anti-European
ideology became more prominent in the weeks following
Arthur’s death, advancing a narrative about foreigners
mocking and taking advantage of Romania. But the seeds
of anti-European rhetoric were sown long before this
incident. Romania’s brain-drain, rising inequality,
poverty, and high levels of corruption make it
dependent on help from European institutions. Naturally,
these phenomena create a sense of inferiority that is then
exploited by right-wing parties who want to instil a
nationalist vision of Romania that stands proud and
strong. In the tale of the prince and the bear, AUR utilized
the bear as a metaphor to explain how, over the past 30
years, the independence of Romania has been ‘stolen by
foreigners’.
On his Facebook page, George Simion, one of AUR’s
leaders, wrote the following:
“In Arthur are all Romanian industries, banks, and minds
stolen by foreigners. Like Arthur, some were unique in
Europe; they were beautiful. But they stood in their way.
(…) It has a much greater significance than it seems. (…) It
is a perfect parable for the way things have happened in
our country, in the last 30 years”.
Such inflammatory language was not previously uttered
publicly by AUR, but one could argue that the shooting of
Arthur the bear marked AUR’s shift to a Eurosceptic party
—one of a growing club in Central and Eastern Europe.
Such a change in AUR’s rhetoric makes sense, as its
previous strategy to amplify anti-COVID-19 measures
and anti-vaccine rhetoric lost its salience, as Romania
reached eight million people vaccinated, and the infection
rate decreased.
Populism 101: Nurturing the inferiority complex
A cornerstone in the rhetoric of emerging populist actors
and parties is their framing of the inferiority complex.
Always uttered to replace the better angels of our nature
with our darkest fears and rash impulses, the complex of
inferiority is promoted in opposition to a much stronger
outsider. Using the slain bear as a metaphor, AUR’s leader
Simion frames the trajectory of Romania since 1989. On
his Facebook account, Simion goes on to say that:
“In 30 years, an inferiority complex has led, together with
a criminal media, which has invented holidays celebrated
by no one, which has made heroes from criminals, and
which has silenced the voices warning of the demolition of
the resistance structure of the economy and the
Romanian state … privatization – the only solution …, IMF
inspectors … and so on.”
Like any emerging right-wing populist, Simion is framing
the effects of the inferiority complex to reveal the
‘damage’ done by the ‘foreigners’ within the last thirty
years. In one paragraph alone, AUR is framing the ‘usual
suspects,’ ranging from ‘criminal media’ to the IMF
inspectors. The language used by Simion is giving hints
towards the transition of AUR towards a crystallized
ideological framework: right-wing national populism.
If this story has a moral, it is that not all fairy tales have
happy endings. Injustice continues to lurk behind the
curtain when the spotlight moves from corruption to the
outsider. And as with any good story nowadays, a sequel
about AUR’s political evolution is in the making.
Featured image: Brown bear / Los Angeles Public
Library Photograph Collection